HG 

■/r5 


,\ 


LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

University  of  California. 

GIRT  0]R 

Received  S-^-^^*  •  ^^9  /  • 

Accession  No.G  /  V  /  G        •    Class  No. 


llllclliv^iai  iiiaLLCio  an-   \.\jw  f-ipt   i.» 


rency  is  a  ponderous  subject  and  that  in  handling 
it  they  must  take  special  pains  to  be  interesting  if 
they  are  to  make  an  impression  on  the  popular  mind. 
Mr.  Mitchell's  arguments  against  silver  are  devel- 
oped in  a  breezy,  Western  way,  with  a  manifest 
intention  to  hit  hard,  tempered  by  an  honest  pur- 
pose to  fight  fairly.  He  make  no  assertions  in 
which  he  does  not  sincerely  believe,  and  is  always 
willing  to  do  justice  to  the  pleas  of  his  opponents. 
We  welcome  his  brochure  as  a  valuable  contribu- 
tion to  the  discussion  of  the  sijver  question  from  an 
honest  money  point  of  view. 

—J.  H.  Holmes,  Editor  Boston  (Mass.)  Herald,  April  3, 1895- 


DOLLARS, 

or,  WHAT? 


^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^  f^^ 


A  Little  Common  Sense 

Applied  to  Silver  as  Money, 


^^  ^^  ^^  ^^  ^^^ 


By  W.  B.  MITCHELL. 


NEWSPAPERS  AT  LIBERTV  TO  QUOTE  FREELY,  IF  CREDIT  IS  GIVEN. 


TIMES  PRINT,  CHATTANOOGA,  TENN. 


in 


*^^i 


n/.yf. 


COPYRIGHTED,  1896,  BY  W.  B.  MITCHELL 


The  articles  in  the  following  pages  are,  many  of  them,  par 
ticularly  suitable  on  account  of  brevity,  for  newspaper  clipping 
and  quotation.  It  was  the  writer's  purpose  to  make  them  accept 
able  to  the  general  reader  by  reason  of  simplicity  of  statemen 
as  well  as  brevity.  He  trusts  that  enough  merit  may  be  founc 
in  them  to  induce  liberal  quotation,  which  all  journals  are  a 
liberty  to  make,  if  credit  is  given  for  same,  it  being  through  thi; 
source  partly  that  he  has  hoped  to  reach  the  masses  with  th( 
sound  doctrines  he  endeavors  to  teach.     And 

To  the  Newspapers  of  the  Land 

THIS    LITTLE   WORK    IS 

l3Et>ICJRTED. 


PREKACK 


[T  has  occurred  to  the  author  of  the  following  pages  that  nearly  all 
writers  on  financial  questions  assume  that  readers  generally  under- 
stand the  salient  principles  of  finance  and  banking,  and  they  there- 
fore fail  to  reach  the  understanding  of  the  masses.  And  though  these 
principles  are  few,  and  not  mysterious,  many  of  our  most  intelligent  and 
capable  men,  particularly  in  professional  life,  have  given  scant  attention  to 
such  matters ;  and  many  men  of  abundant  sense  in  agriculture  and  other 
pursuits  have  had  little  opportunity  to  stud}'  them.  With  the  view  of  ap- 
pealing to  these  good  citizens,  who  are  always  desirous  of  forming  correct 
opinions  on  important  public  issues,  but  who  have  not  the  time  nor  possi- 
bly the  patience  to  carefully  wade  through  conflicting  newspaper  com- 
ments and  reports,  the  author  has  written  a  number  of  short  articles  on 
the  most  important  question  that  has  come  before  the  American  people 
since  the  days  of  slavery.  He  has  not  gone  extensively  into  statistics,  nor 
into  a  scientific  discussion  of  the  subjects  he  handles,  but  has  merely 
grouped  a  few  simple  facts  and  principles  and  presented  them  in  a  plain, 
direct  manner;  such  as  will,  he  trusts,  make  them  iinderstood  by  all  who 
may  read  them.  He  appeals  directly  to  the  common  sense  of  the  people. 
He  does  not  believe  the  financial  question  a  complicated  or  a  difficult  one, 
as  it  is  generally  supposed  to  be;  but  on  the  contrary,  quite  understand- 
able and  easy  of  solution  if  the  people  were  agreed  on  the  main  issue ; 
and  he  attempts  in  plain  language  to  make  it  as  plain  to  others  as  it  a 
pears  to  him. 

Although  a  banker,  where  he  owns  one  dollar  in  bank  stock  he  owns  ten 
dollars  in  othor  property.  He  believes  that  a  bank  cannot  prosper  unless 
the  customers  and  the  community  prosper,  and  that  the  prosperity  of  these 
depends  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  country  as  a  whole ;  but  if  it  were  pos- 
sible that  the  prosperity  of  the  bank  he  manages  lay  in  one  direction  and 
the  prosperity  of  the  people  and  the  country  lay  in  another  direction,  his 
self-interest  would  oblige  and  compel  him  to  go  with  the  people  and  the 
country.  He  therefore  speaks,  not  as  a  banker,  but  as  an  American  citizen. 
He  speaks,  also,  as  a  Southern  man,  concerned  for  the  future  of  the  South. 
He  believes  that  the  South  has  a  great  future  under  right  conditions.  He 
believes  that  the  agitation  of  free  silver  is  a  blight  upon  the  South,  and 
(iv) 


PREFACE.  V 

that  its  industries  and  enterprises  must,  in  a  measure,  await  the  settlement 
of  the  free  coinage  issue. 

The  chief  and  only  serious  plea  the  free  silver  advocates  make  for  the 
favor  of  voters  is  that  "demonetization"  of  silver  has  been  the  cause  of 
the  steady  decline  in  most  values  since  1873,  ^^d  that  its  free  coinage 
would  restore  values  and  advance  silver  to  the  prices  of  former  years. 
Particular  care  is  taken  in  the  following  pages  to  show  the  error  of  this 
view. 

An  effort  is  also  made  to  show  the  danger  of  inflation  in  any  form,  and 
that  stability  and  confidence  are  the  basis  of  all  prosperity. 

Statistics  given  are  taken  from  the  1894  United  States  government  re- 
ports, unless  otherwise  specified,  approximate  figures  being  generally 
used. 

Certain  repetition  is  used  in  some  instances,  with  the  view  of  making 
each  article  more  forcible  and  a  more  complete  argument  within  itself,  the 
writer  believing  that  short  articles  are  more  likely  to  be  read  and  under- 
stood than  any  long  and  continuous  exposition  of  the  questions  involved. 
The  writer  appeals  with  earnest  purpose  to  the  voter,  and  begs  a  careful, 
thoughtful  reading  of  what  he  says.  We  all  live  in  the  same  country,  and 
our  interests  in  this  matter  are  the  same.  If  calamity  befalls  us,  none 
can  dodge  its  shadow;  if  prosperity  smiles  upon  us,  all  alike  are  filled 
with  gladness. 

W.  B.  MITCHELIy. 

Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  April  16,  1895. 


CONTENTS. 


PAG™ 


I — Voters  Right  Minded... 7 

2 — The  Financial  Question 8 

3 — Divisions  of  Sentiment 10 

4^~The  Government  Stamp  on  Money 12 

5 — Difference  Between  Demand  and  Time  Obhgations , 15 

6 — A  Double  Monetary  Standard. 16 

7 — Inconsistency  of  Free  Coinage  Advocates 17 

8 — Volume  of  Money  Needed 19 

9 — Issuing  Paper  Against  Silver 21 

10 — "  Discrimination  "  Against  Silver 23 

II — "  Demonetization"  of  Silver 24 

12 — "The  Appreciation"  of  Gold 25 

13 — Gold  the  "  Money  of  the  People" 27 

14 — The  General  Decline  in  Prices 30 

15 — Old  Time  Prices 32 

16 — Silver  and  Wheat 33 

17 — Silver  and  Coffee 34 

18 — Silver,  Wheat  and  Coffee 35 

19 — Silver  and  Cotton 36 

20 — Silver  in  France 37 

21 — Free  Coinage  in  Mexico : 38 

22 — Train  Loads  of  Silver 39 

23 — GcJd  and  Silver  Production 41 

24 — Fluctuations  in  the  Silver  Dollar 43 

25 — The  Ratio  Between  Goldand  Silver 45 

26 — Exports  of  Silver 48 

27 — Obstacles  in  the  Way  of  Free  Silver 48 

28— Do  We  Want  Bimetallism? 50 

29 — Free  Silver  Not  Free  Distribution 53 

30 — Gold  Standard  and  Prosperity 55 

31 — The  Losses  of  1893 57 

32 — The  "  Money  Power" 59 

33 — "Privileges"  of  National  Banks ' 62 

34 — Bank  Note  Circuladon 64 

35 — Our  Indebtedness  Abroad 67 

36 — How  to  Get  More  Money 69 

37 — "Coin's  Financial  School" 71 

38— The  Rise  in  Coal  Oil  and  Beef 75 

39 — "  Coin's  "  Unit  of  Value 76 

40 — "Coin's"  Unlimited  Demand "n 

41 — "  Coin's"  Fatal  Admission L 78 

42 — The  Danger  of  "Coin's"  Logic 80 

43 — The  "Silver  Bug" 82 

44 — Out  of  the  Frying  Pan  Into  the  Fire 83 

45 — International  Bimetallism 85 

46 — "Friends"  of  the  People 87 

47 — Sound  Money  Clubs 89 

48— A  Word  to  the  East - 90  • 

49 — Present  General  Condition 92 

50 — Which  Do  You  Prefer? 94 

51 — Note  to  Second  Edition 95 

(vi) 


VOTERS  RIGHT  MINDED. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  charge  that  all  the  free  silver  people  are 
fanatics,  lunatics  and  repudiationists.  A  mistake  as  great  as 
it  is  to  say  that  sound  money  men  are  "conspirators"  and 
''gold  bugs."  Many  of  them  are  among  our  most  useful 
and  intelligent  citizens,  and  are  perfectly  honest  and  patriotic. 
They  have  not  seriously  studied  the  merits  of  the  doctrines 
they  embrace,  but  they  are  as  anxious  as  any  of  us  to  do  the 
right  thing  and  put  the  country  in  the  way  of  prosperity. 
They  are  open  to  argument  and  to  conviction.  They  somehow 
have  an  idea  that  there  is  a  "conspiracy"  to  drive  out  silver 
and  to  "contract"  the  currency.  The  metal  has  been 
"demonetized,"  and  that  to  them  is  an  ominous  and  mislead- 
ing word.  They  do  not  know  that  much  more  silver  has 
been  coined  and  circulated  since  the  alleged  "  demonetiza- 
tion" than  before,  and  that  we  have  fully  seven  times  as  much 
now  as  in  1873.  They  do  not  understand  that  free  silver 
means  the  driving  out  of  gold,  and  leaving  silver  and  paper 
only  as  money.  They  do  not  understand  that  such  calamity 
would  suddenly  contract  the  currency  more  than  if  all  the 
silver  in  the  country  were  dumped  into  the  sea.  Their  feel- 
ings and  their  sentiments  have  been  played  upon  by  dema- 
gogues, and  it  is  these  men  who  deserve  the  severest  condem- 
nation. Most  of  these  have  had  opportunities  of  informa- 
tion, and  know  the  falsity  of  their  statements.  But  their 
business  is  politics.  They  are  after  fat  berths  in  government 
service.  They  are,  or  want  to  be.  Congressmen  and  Senators, 
at  salaries  they  could  not  earn  at  home,  even  if  they  were 
willing  to  work.  They  deceive  and  misrepresent  for  a  selfish 
purpose.  It  pays  them  in  dollars  and  cents  to  do  it.  Some 
of  them  are  high  in  party  and  national  councils,  and  the 
people,  respecting  high  station,  have  learned  to  respect  them 
and  to  be  guided  by  them.  What  is  here  said  does  not 
apply  to  all  free  silver  politicians,  nor  to  all  politicians  of 
any  party  or  faction,  but,  as  must  be  owned,  it  applies  truth- 
fully to  the  grear  majority  of  them.  And  the  free  silver 
advocates  are  now  making  more  false  statements  and  doing 

(7) 


8  DOIvIvARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

more  mischief  than  any  other  class  of  office  seekers.  And 
there  is  but  one  way  to  checkmate  them.  That  is  to  give 
the  people  the  facts  in  such  way  that  they  may  be  understood. 
When  this  is  well  done  the  day  of  the  free  coinage  trickster 
is  done. 

The  road  to  financial  ruin  will  not  be  followed  when  the 
sign-boards  are  well  posted.  Sensible  men — and  most  voters 
are  sensible — do  not  rush  into  pitfalls  when  the  marks  are 
clear.     These  can  and  should  be  made  clear  as  day. 


THE  FINANCIAL  QUESTION. 


i 

Amer-   ^ 


The  money  question  is  now  the  most  vital  issue  in 
ican  politics,  and  it  is  one  on  which  the  demagogue  can  get 
in  his  most  effective  work.     He  needs  no  experience,  prac 
tical  ability,  nor  brains,  to  belabor  the  ^'gold  bugs,"  and  tbi 
"money  power,"  and  to  talk  about  the  "dollar  of  our  dad^ 
dies,"  and  the  "money  of  the  constitution.'^ 

Whether  he  be  a  brilliant  but  deluded  theorist,  a  shrewd 
and  designing  owner  of  Western  silver  mines,  or  a  cheap 
politician  who  takes  the  shortest  cut  to  get  votes,  he  is  a  dan- 
gerous agitator,  because  he  appeals  to  popular,  though  mis- 
taken, prejudices. 

A  combination  of  adverse  causes  and  conditions  depressed 
values  and  trade  throughout  the  world,  and  the  fear  of  a 
silver  basis  has  intensified  that  depression  in  America.  The 
free  silver  advocate,  if  he  be  a  misguided  theorist,  believes, 
and  if  he  be  a  silver  mine  owner  or  a  mere  demagogue,  pre- 
tends to  believe,  that  these  conditions  are  the  direct  result 
of  what  he  calls  "demonetization"  of  silver.  He  attributes 
all  legislation  "unfriendly"  to  silver,  the  world  ovei-^  to  the 
"gold  bugs,"  thus  appealing  to  the  prejudice  of  those  who 
do  not  think  or  reason  for  themselves.  His  false  doctrines 
are  the  more  readily  accepted  because  the  government  itself, 
first  from  supposed  necessity  during  the  rebellion,  and  since 
under  the  direction  of  unwise  and  compromising  politicians, 
has  upheld  the  vicious  theory  of  fiat  money  and  inflation. 
It  first  became  a  bank  of  issue,  and  undertook  to  furnish  the 
people  with  fiat  paper  money,  and  then  for  purposes  of  in 


H 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  9 

vidual  gain  it  was  saddled  with  the  product  of  the  Western 
silver  mines,  and  soon  began  to  issue  fiat  silver,  continuing 
this  dangerous  experiment  till  the  world  began  to  doubt  its 
solvency,  and  gave  its  strange  system  and  money  the  cold 
shoulder.  Foreign  investors  began  to  withdraw  from  the 
country,  and  the  panic  of  1893  was  the  result.  The  Sher- 
man law  was  repealed,  and  the  issue  of  fiat  money  was 
stopped.  But  the  weakness  and  folly  of  our  financial  system 
had  been  laid  bare,  and  recovery  was  slow.  Our  slender  gold 
reserve,  which  supported  our  great  volume  of  fiat  money, 
and  our  thousands  of  millions  of  credits  of  all  kinds,  was 
in  evident  danger.  The  danger  was  intensified  when  the 
Fifty-Third  Congress — an  incompetent,  free  silver  body — 
assembled.  And  during  the  existence  of  that  Congress 
the  country  was  kept  in  a  state  of  feverish  anxiety  and 
uncertainty. 

It  is  a  matter  of  great  concern  to  us  all  that  we  get  back 
to  a  safe  and  sensible  financial  policy.  Whether  we  toil  at 
the  desk  or  in  the  workshop,  behind  the  counter  or  on  the 
farm,  we  are  each  and  all  directly  concerned  in  having  a 
stable  financial  system,  in  the  permanency  and  safety  of 
which  we,  and  outsiders,  have  absolute  faith. 

We  want  to  be  paid  for  our  labor  in  good  money,  which 
we  can  put  by  with  confidence.  If  we  buy  anything  with  it 
we  want  the  full  worth  of  good  money ;  if  we  put  it  at  inter- 
est, put  it  in.  the  bank,  or  invest  it  in  securities  or  life  insur- 
ance, we  do  not  want  it  returned  to  us  or  to  our  families  at  a 
discount.  We  wanLto  make  safe,  and  not  speculative  invest- 
ments with  our  savings.  We  earn  good  dollars,  and  we  do 
not  want  to  see  them  depreciate  and  become  bad  dollars, 
whether  in  our  own  or  in  other  hands.  We  lock  up  a  hun- 
dred cents,  or  we  put  out  a  hundred  cents,  and  we  want  it  to 
remain  a  hundred  cents.  We  do  not  want  it  to  shrink  to 
seventy-five  cents  or  to  fifty  cents  while  we  are  about  our 
work  or  our  business.  We  do  not  want  to  go  to  bed  at  night 
with  a  dollar  and  get  up  in  the  morning  with  less  than  a . 
dollar.  We  do  not  want  an  uncertain  or  a  fluctuating  cur- 
rency. If  we  are  wise  we  want  the  standard  of  all  great 
civilized  nations. 

We  have  good  investments  to  offer.  We  have  a  new 
country  with  great  natural  resources.  We  want  the  confi- 
dence of  people  all  over  the  world — want  their  brains  and 
enterprise  and  money  to  aid  in  developing  these  resources. 


lo  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

We  have  now,  in  a  measure,  lost  that  confidence,  and  can 
obtain  it  again  only  by  manifesting  the  clearest  purpose  oi 
future  integrity  in  our  national  finances.  If  we  lend  an  eai 
to  the  delusive  harangues  of  the  free  silver  advocate,  it  is 
hopelessly  gone  from  us. 

We  of  *the  South  in  particular  are  vitally  concerned  in  a 
financial  policy  that  will  insure  the  confidence  of  everybody. 
We  have  the  Hchest  undeveloped  section  of  the  country. 
The  eyes  of  investors  everywhere  are  turned  toward  us. 
Give  the  country  safe  financial  legislation  and  within  ten 
years  the  idle  accumulation  of  money  of  the  East  and  of 
other  countries  would  come  to  us  by  the  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions. But  give  us  free  coinage  of  silver  and  we  shall  invite 
the  ridicule  and  contempt  of  the  civilized  world.  We  should 
take  a  backward  step  of  half  a  century  in  our  industrial 
growth.  Under  such  condition  there  would  be  no  hope  at 
all  for  the  present  generation  in  the  South.  The  East,  with 
its  generations  of  savings  and  large  accumulations,  might,  in 
a  way,  survive  such  a  calamity,  largely,  too,  at  our  cost ;  but 
we  should  flounder  in  poverty. 

Without  regard  to  political  ties  or  associations,  let  us  of  the 
vSouth,  aye,  and  of  the  North,  and  the  East,  rise  and  stand 
together  against  this  proposed  and  monstrous  blunder.  I^et 
us  make  it  clear  that  no  man,  of  any  party,  can  have  our 
votes  unless  he  squarely  defines  himself  for  honest  money 
and  honest  financial  legislation. 


DIVISIONS  OF  SENTIMENT. 

Bimetallism  means  the  use  of  both  gold  and  silver  as 
money.  It  does  not  necessarily  mean  a  double  standard, 
which  is  an  impossibility,  unless  an  equal  intrinsic  market- 
able value  of  metal  is  put  in  each  kind  of  dollar.  That  is, 
loo  cents'  worth  of  marketable  gold  in  the  gold  dollar  and 
loo  cents'  worth  of  marketable  silver  in  the  silver  dollar. 
This  would  make  a  double  standard,  but  to  remain  so  there 
must  be  no  fluctuation  in  the  market  value  of  either  metal. 

The  use  of  gold  alone  as  a  money  metal  is  gold  monomet- 
allism. 


Ji 


DOI^IvARvS,  OR  WHAT?  ii 

The  use  of  silver  alone  is  silver  monometallism. 

The  silver  mining  states  of  the  West  want  and  have  long 
been  striving  for  silver  monometallism. 

The  remainder  of  the  free  silver  people  want  bimetallism. 

The  distinction  is  vital,  but  not  generally  understood,  or 
recognized. 

There  is  really  wider  difference  of  real  sentiment  between 
the  mining  camps  of  the  West  and  the  silver  people  of  other 
sections  than  there  is  between  the  latter  and  the  sound 
money  men. 

Silver  men  east  of  the  Mississippi  have  no  interest  in  the 
silver  product  as  an  industry ,"and  only  desire  to  promote  its 
wider  use  as  money;  but  generally,  unlike  their  Western 
allies,  they  would  oppose  its  use  to  the  exclusion  of  gold  and 
the  great  consequent  reduction  in  the  volume  of  our  currency. 

They  have  a  mistaken  theory  that  gold  and  silver  can  both 
become  standards  of  money  on  a  basis  of  i6  to  i,  and  it  is 
that  theory  for  which  they  are  earnestly  fighting,  in  the 
honest  but  erroneous  belief  that  it  would  work  in  practice 
and  restore  old  time  prosperity.  It  is  simply  a  theory,  be- 
cause it  is  an  idea  or  scheme  that  has  never  been  put  to  the 
test.  There  is  no  record  in  history  that  any  nation  has  at- 
tempted to  make  standards  of  two  metals  at  a  ratio  of  greatly 
differing  values. 

The  silver  people  assert  that  free  coinage  would  raise  the 
value  of  silver  to  that  of  gold  on  a  basis  of  i6  to  i,  but  that 
is  also  a  mere  theory,  with  everything  against  it  and  nothing 
in  favor  of  it,  excepting  the  bare  assertion,  and  that,  like  the 
other,  is  a  most  dangerous  theory  in  view  of  the  calamities 
its  test  would  precipitate. 

The  sound  money  men  oppose  both  these  theories,  and 
also  oppose  the  scheme  of  the  Western  silverites  to  put  the 
country  on  a  silver  basis,  with  silver  as  the  only  metallic 
currency.  They  are  not  gold  monometallists,  as  is  often 
charged.  There  is  no  public  sentiment  favoring  gold  mono- 
metallism in  this  country.  They  are  bimetallists,  differing 
from  the  free  coinage  bimetallists  in  that  they  favor  our 
present  gold  standard  of  value,  and  desire  to  keep  all  the 
silver  that  can  be  safely  used,  and  all  the  paper  circulation  as 
good  as  gold,  on  which  both  are  based. 

Unlike  the  free  coinage  bimetallists,  they  advocate  no 
theories.  They  adhere  to  precedents  and  tried  principles. 
They  believe  that  the  experiences  and  practical  financial  tests 


12  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

of  Other  nations,  at  the  present  day  and  in  former  perioTTs 
arc  a  safe  guide.  They  have  the  record  of  a  thousand  years 
of  financiering,  and  find  no  instance  where  a  bold  and  gen- 
erally distrusted  financial  theory,  put  to  a  practical  test,  has 
has  not  wrought  disaster.  Although  they  greatly  admire  the 
genius  of  young  America,  and  are  partial  to  some  of  her 
statesmen,  they  are  unwilling  to  follow  the  lead  of  men  who 
would  make  such  radical  departure  from  all  known  and  tried 
methods  of  financiering. 

The  writer  believes  this  to  be  a  true  and  candid  statement 
of  three  important  divisions  of  sentiment  on  the  financial 
question. 

Is  the  reader  a  bimetallist  of  the  theoretical  school?  Is  he 
a  bimetallist  of  the  practical  school  ?  Or  is  he  a  silver  mono- 
metallist  of  the  school  of  the  mining  camps? 

If  he  is  a  bimetallist  of  the  theoretical  school,  there  is  great 
hope  that  he  may  join  the  practical  school.  It  is  assumed 
that  he  is  a  sensible,  right  thinking  man,  earnest  in  right 
purposes,  really  afraid  of  mere  theories ;  and  if  he  will  take 
the  pains  to  investigate  this  important  matter  he  can  ascertain 
that  his  present  views  ARE  theoretical  to  the  extent  that 
they  have  never  been  tried  by  ANY  nation  that  history  makes 
mention  of.  x 

If,  however,  he  belongs  to  the  school  of  the  mining  camps, 
there  is  little  hope  of  him.  They  have  silver  to  sell  out 
there,  and  the  only  lessons  taught  are  how  to  sell  it.  This  is 
a  selfish  doctrine,  and  the  man  who  embraces  it  is  hard  to 
reach.  There  are  a  few  politicians  east  of  the  Mississippi 
who  belong  to  this  school,  but  they  have  outlived  their  day 
and  usefulness. 


: 


THE  GOVERNMENT  STAMP  ON  MONEY. 

It  is  a  popular  error  of  free  coinage  people,  and  other  ad- 
vocates of  fiat  money,  that  the  stamp  of  the  government 
makes  money  perfectly  good.  This  false  idea  is  at  the  bot- 
tom of  most  inflation  theories. 

The  United  States,  or  any  other  government,  might  stamp 
a  dollar  mark  on  a  paper  bill  and  it  would  not  pass  for  5 
cents,  nor  for  i   cent,  if  the  bill  were  drawn  without  any 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  13 

promise  to  pay.  This  is  a  simple  fact,  not  at  all  understood 
by  many  intelligent  people. 

There  must  be  a  promise  of  final  redemption,  acceptance 
for  customs,  or  other  substantial  promise  to  pay,  and  its 
value,  as  money,  depends  entirely  on  the  kind  of  payment 
promised,  and  on  the  solvency  and  ability  of  the  government 
or  institution  issuing  the  bill.  In  Mexico,  or  any  other 
country  on  a  silver  basis,  the  promise  to  pay  would  be  in 
silver,  and  the  bill,  therefore,  granting  the  solvency  and 
promptness  of  the  maker,  would  be  worth  a  Mexican  silver 
dollar,  about  fifty  cents  of  our  money. 

In  the  United  States  the  promise  to  pay  on  such  a  bill 
means  payment  in  gold,  because  the  United  States  maintains 
a  supply  of  gold  for  the  special  purpose  of  paying  any  of 
these  bills  that  may  be  presented. 

Another  mistaken  idea  of  many  uninformed  people  is  that 
the  government  issues  these  bills,  and  that  they  pass  from 
hand  to  hand  indefinitely,  and  nobody  ever  asks  to  have  them 
redeemed. 

The  fact  is  that  the  government  is  often  called  on  for  the 
redemption  of  its  bills.  This  has  been  made  quite  clear  and 
become  pretty  generally  understood  during  the  past  two 
years.  Business  men  require  gold  for  commercial  purposes, 
and  when  it  suits  their  convenience  they  exchange  their 
paper  money  for  it.  But  if  such  exchange  seldom,  or  never, 
actually  occurred,  the  fact  that  it  could  at  any  time  be  made 
would  make  the  payer  money  as  good  as  gold. 

A  man  may  have  $100  to  his  credit  in  bank,  and  let  it  re- 
main there  year  after  year,  because  he  does  not  need  it,  and 
believes  if  he  should  need  it  he  could  go  to  the  bank  and  get 
it. 

Under  our  system  the  government  represents  the  bank, 
and  the  holder  of  any  bill,  or  piece  of  money  other  than 
gold,  represents  the  depositor,  and  the  bill  or  money  he  holds 
is  a  certificate  of  deposit.  As  long  as  he  can  go  to  the  gov- 
ernment bank  and  get  this  certificate  cashed,  he  is  satisfied 
to  hold  it ;  or  the  man  he  owes,  or  deals  with,  willingly  ac- 
cepts it.  In  other  words,  if  the  government  clearly  shows 
its  purpose  of  maintaining,  and  its  ability  to  maintain,  its 
gold  reserve  for  redemption  purposes,  no  large  volume  of 
paper,  or  fiat  money,  is  presented  for  redemption.  But  if  the 
government  wavers  in  that  purpose,  or  if  it  puts  in  circula- 
tion too  many  promises  to  pay,  either  in  paper  dollars  or  in 


14  DOIylvARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

silver  dollars — if  it  thus  increases  its  demand  obligations  out 
of  proportion  to  the  gold  redemption  reserve,  then  people 
lose  confidence  in  the  intrinsic  value  of  its  dollar  marks  on 
paper  and  silver,  and  large  amounts  of  the  money  are  taken 
to  the  Treasury  and  exchanged  for  gold,  as  was  the  case  after 
the  passage  of  the  Sherman  law,  and  notably  in  1893. 

During  the  ten  years  preceding  the  passage  of  the  Sher- 
man act  the  total  withdrawals  of  gold  from  the  Treasury,  in 
exchange  for  paper  money,  were  less  than  twenty  millions 
of  dollars ;  but  during  the  four  years  the  Sherman  law  was  in 
force  these  withdrawals  of  gold  exceeded  two  hundred  and 
sixty  millions  of  dollars.  Had  that  law  not  been  repealed 
in  1893,  there  would  not  have  been  a  dollar  of  gold  in  the 
Treasury  within  six  months,  and  there  would  soon  have  been 
none  in  the  countr3^  We  should  have  wholly  lost  more  than 
one-third  of  the  money  in  circulation,  and  the  remaining 
two-thirds  would  have  been  on  a  silver  basis,  possessing  only  «— 
one-half  its  former  purchasing  value.  SI 

The  United  States  has  no  more  immunity  from  distrust, 
if  it  manages  its  finances  badly,  than  an  individual  or  a  cor- 
porate institution.     If  conducted  on  unsound  principles,  its 
treasury  is  as  liable  to  a  run  as  a  bank.     If  people  have  paper 
bills  with  dollar  marks  on  them,  for  which  they  can  get  gold 
to-day  but  may  not  be  able  to  get  it  to-morrow,  they  are  apt 
\o  make   liie  *  ex^change   to-day.     If  they  have  silver  pieces 
worth  really  onl>>?'  50  cents,  but  which,  by  reason  of  the  gov- 
ernment stamp,   avud  promise,   they  can   now  convert  into 
crold,  but  may  not  bt<^  able  to  do  so  to-morrow  or  next  week, 
they  are  likely  to  conV>^'^rt  it  now.    And  it  is  not  bankers  only 
who  make  the  exchangee. 

There  are  to-day  tena^;  of  millions  of  gold  hoarded  in  the 
stockings  of  the  free  silv^-^r  coinage  advocates  of  the  United 
States.  The  writer  knowls  a  man  in  his  own  city,  prominent 
in  public  life  and  a  protiounced  free  coinage  man,  who  in 
1893  promptly  converted  his  bank  account  into  gold  and 
locked  it  up.  He  knows  j  scores  of  other  strong  free  silver 
men  who  did  the  same  thi|ng. 

In  practice  these  people;  appear  to  know  the  difference  be- 
tween a  dollar  mark  and  a  real  dollar — between  a  gold  basis 
and  a  silver  basis;  but  in  theory  the  "money  of  the  consti- 
tution "  is  good  enough  for  anybody,  and  a  gold  standard  is 
'infamous. 


I 


J 


DOIyl^ARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 


DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  DEMAND  AND  TIME 
OBLIGATIONS. 

Persons  who  do  not  reason,  and  have  given  small  attention 
to  business  principles  and  financial  matters,  do  not  recognize 
the  difference  between  demand  and  time  obligations,  particu- 
larly as  applied  to  governmental  affairs. 

They  know  that  the  United  States  is  a  great  and  rich 
country,  and  that  it  is  abundantly  able  to  pay  all  its  debts. 
They  reason  that  such  a  great  country,  with  such  unlimited 
resources,  can  put  out  unlimited  quantities  of  paper,  or  de- 
preciated silver,  and  circulate  them  at  full  face  value  as 
money.  But,  as  stated  elsewhere,  such  money  must  be 
promises  to  pay ;  and  to  make  the  promise  good  the  govern- 
ment must  be  ready  to  pay.  It  must  be  ready  to  pay  on 
demand.  If  not,  the  promise  means  nothing.  Its  promise 
to  pay  must  be  in  somethmg  of  intrinsic  value.  Gold,  if  on 
a  gold  basis,  and  silver  if  on  a  silver  basis,  and  this  redemp- 
tion money  must  be  in  hand  and  in  sight.  It  must  be  in 
good  proportion  to  the  money  it  puts  in  circulation.  If  it  is 
not,  nobody  has  confidence  in  the  money.  But  the  ability 
of  any  government  to  accumulate  and  carry  a  stock  of  coin 
for  such  purpose  is  limited,  and  consequently  its  circulation 
of  money  must  be  limited  in  proportion. 

Time  obligations  are  less  directly  limited.  These  are 
based  on  the  resources  and  wealth  of  the  country;  on  its 
revenue,  or  possible  revenue.  They  may  be  paid .  at  matur- 
ity, or  funded  and  extended  indefinitely.  They  bear  interest, 
and  can  be  floated  as  long  as  there  is  no  decline  in  the 
resources  of  the  country. 

Demand  obligations,  in  the  form  of  money,  bear  no  inter- 
est, and  are  therefore  of  uncertain  value,  whether  issued  by 
a  government  or  by  an  authorized  corporation,  unless  good 
on  demand. 

The  United  States  can  float  its  lo,  20  or  30-year  interest- 
bearing  bonds  in  very  large  sums,  without  injury  to  its 
credit,  but  floating  money,  payable  on  demand,  and  on 
which  payment  is  being  constantly  demanded,  is  quite  a 
different  thing. 

The  distinction  is  vital.  There  would  be  less  clamor  for 
-fiat  money  if  it  were  generally  better  understood. 


16  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

An  individual  with  good  resourses  may  put  out  $io,< 
of  his  interest-bearing  time  notes  and  carry  such  indebted- 
ness for  y^ars. 

Before  they  mature  he  prudently  arranges  for  renewals, 
or  places  them  elsewhere.  If  these  obligations  were  payable 
on  demand  they  would  be  a  constant  menace,  liable  to  bank- 
rupt him  at  any  time. 

Fundamental  principles  of  business  and  finance  are  inex- 
orable, and  apply  relentlessly  alike  to  men  or  nations. 

Any  scheme  to  issue  large  amounts  of  fiat  money  is  wholly 
chimerical.  Wherever  undertaken  the  result  has  been  fail- 
ure and  bankruptcy.  No  people  can  grow  rich  on  promises 
to  pay  that  cannot  be  made  good. 


A  DOUBLE  MONETARY  STANDARD. 

The  only  way  a  double  standard  of  money  can  be  main 
tained  is  to  put  the  same  commercial  value  of  metal  in  the 
coin  of  each  standard.  If  an  actual  dollar's  worth  of  silver 
be  put  in  the  silver  dollar,  and  a  dollar's  worth  of  gold  in 
the  gold  dollar,  then  the  gold  dollar  and  the  silver  dollar  will 
both  become  standards.  Commercial  laws  will  make  them 
such  without  any  reference  to  legislation.  Commercial  law 
is  superior  to  legislation  in  the  fixing  of  values. 

It  is  a  wholly  mistaken  and  visionary  theory  that  legisla- 
tion (either  by  one  government  or  by  all  the  governments  in 
the  world)  can  make  a  double  standard  of  money,  or  of  any- 
thing else.  Is  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  United 
States  and  all  Europe  combined  could  pass  laws  that  would 
make  the  prices  of  wheat  and  corn  the  same  in  the  world's 
markets?  And  yet  the  prices  of  these  commodities  can  as 
easily  be  regulated  as  the  values  of  gold  and  silver.  If  50 
cents  or  75  cents,  or  even  99  cents'  worth  of  silver  be  put 
into  the  silver  dollar,  and  both  the  gold  dollar  and  the  silver 
dollar  are  made  a  legal  tender  (without  a  gold  redemption 
feature),  it  ought  to  be  easy  enough  to  see  that  people  would 
use  the  cheaper  dollar,  and  either  sell  or  hoard  the  dollar  of 
intrinsic  value.  The  silver  dollar  would  be  as  good  as  the 
gold  dollar  to  pay  debts  with,  but  the  gold  dollar  would  sell 


ii 


DOLI.ARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  17 

in  the  market  by  weight  for  a  premium.  Therefore,  the  gold 
would  go  out  of  circulation.  It  is  simply  impossible  to  keep 
two  moneys  of  different  intrinsic  values  both  in  circulation, 
unless  the  cheaper  money  is  made  redeemable  in  the  more 
valuable  money. 

And  an  unlimited  amount  of  cheap  money  cannot  be  re- 
deemable in  good  money. 

Up  to  twenty  years  ago  the  ratio  of  value  between  the  two 
metals  had  been  for  about  two  centuries  between  i^}4  and 
16  of  silver  to  one  of  gold.  Running  thus  evenly  it  was  not 
impossible  to  have  a  double  money  standard,  and  such  stand- 
ard did  exist  in  many  countries. 

But  at  times  one  metal  or  the  other  increased  or  decreased 
in  value  and  at  such  times  the  more  valuable  in  every  in- 
stance went  out  of  circulation. 

This  is  the  record  of  history,  and  many  instances  may  be 
cited.  It  is  only  within  comparatively  recent  years  that  any 
country  conceived  the  plan  of  making  the  cheaper  metal 
redeemable  in  or  interchangeable  with  the  more  valuable 
metal.  And  when  silver  began  to  be  so  abundant,  and  to 
decline  so  greatly,  all  countries,  excepting  the  United  States, 
abandoned  or  greatly  modified  that  plan. 


INCONSISTENCY  OF  FREE  COINAGE  ADVOCATES. 

The  worst  inconsistency  of  the  advocate  of  free  coinage  is 
the  ratio  at  which  he  insists  silver  must  be  coined.  He 
wants  it  coined  at  16  to  i.  That  is,  he  would  put  16  times 
as  much  weight  to  a  silver  dollar  as  is  put  in  a  gold  dollar. 
On  this  basis,  before  either  piece  of  metal  is  converted  into 
stamped  money,  the  piece  of  gold  would  sell  in  any  market 
in  the  world  for  100  cents,  whereas  the  piece  of  silver  would 
bring  but  little  over  50  cents. 

It  is  clear  that  the  silver  50  cent  piece  must  be  made  by 
law  interchangeable  with  and  practically  redeemable  by  the 
government  in  the  full  value  gold  dollar;  otherwise  the  two 
dollars  would  not  circulate  side  by  side.  Yet  this  silver 
theorist  rails  at  the  government  for  keeping  a  gold  reserve 
to  make  this  50-cent  silver  money  pass  for  100  cents. 


i8  DOIvIvARS,  OR  WHAT? 

If  silver  advocates  want  to  coin  all  the  silver  in  the  world 
why  do  they  not  propose  to  put  loo  cents'  worth  of  silver 
into  the  silver  dollar?  It  would  then  stand  alone,  and  until 
silver  declined  they  could,  without  disturbance,  give  the 
metal  the  "wide  use"  to  which  they  claim  it  is  entitled. 

The  writer  does  not  believe  in  nor  advocate  the  practica- 
bility of  this  policy,  but  speaks  from  the  silver  standpoint. 
And  such  policy  would  be  more  honest,  and  somewhat  less 
dangerous  than  the  plan  proposed,  though  it  would  doubtless 
soon  result  in  the  disasters  of  the  Sherman  law. 

In  former  ages  and  periods  silver  was  in  great  request  as 
a  money  medium,  because  the  supply  was  very  limited.  But 
modern  discoveries,  appliances  and  inventions  have  so  in- 
creased and  cheapened  the  product  that  it  is  fast  ceasing  to 
be  of  value  as  a  money  metal.  While  in  former  ages  it  was 
turned  out  by  the  pound,  it  is  now  turned  out  by  the  ton 
and  by  the  ship  load.  At  one  period  of  the  world  copper 
was  used  as  money,  and  would  doubtless  have  continued  in 
use  to  the  present  day  but  for  the  fact  that  it  became  so 
abundant  that  it  ceased  to  be  a  precious  metal. 

It  is  not  easy  for  people  now  to  accept  the  idea  that  silver 
may  for  the  same  reason  eventually  cease  to  be  useful  for 
monetary  purposes.     That  time  has  not  yet,  and  may  never  ^ 
come,  but  it  cannot  be  said  to  be  a  remote  possibility. 

It  is  foolish  to  go  on  theorizing  about  the  cause  of  its  de- 
cline, and  the  methods  that  would  raise  its  value,  when  it  is 
becoming  so  abundant  that  warehouses,   instead  of  strong 
boxes,  must  be  provided  for  its  storage.     The  commercial 
law  of  supply  and  demand  regulates  its  price  exactly  as  it  ^^ 
regulates  the  price  of  every  other  known  product,  and  it  is.lK 
not  within  the  power  of  all  the  legislative  bodies  in  the  world 
to  permanently  and  materially  raise  or  depress  its  value. 
Whether  they  all  "demonetize  "  or  "  remonetize  "  makes  in 
the  long  run  small  difference.     The  law  of  supply  and  de-  ,^ 
mand  has  small  respect  for  the  edicts  of  legislative  solons.      .jM| 

Happily,  however,  for  other  nations,  and  for  the  general 
good  of  mankind,  the  United  States  is  the  only  country  on 
earth  dominated  by  the  mine  operators  of  a  few  sparsely 
settled  states.  England,  France  and  Germany  may  have  a 
few  visionaries,  but  their  legislative  bodies  are  not  bullied 
by  a  powerful  lobby  of  millionaires  with  train  loads  of  silver 
for  sale. 

All  efforts  looking  to  free  coinage  bimetallism  by  inter- 


I 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  19 

national  agreement  are  wasted.  The  credits  of  Europe, 
amounting  to  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars,  are  based  on  a 
safe  and  permanent  standard.  Its  disturbance  would  result 
in  disaster  and  calamity,  such  as  would  shake  to  the  founda- 
tions every  throne  and  government  on  the  continent.  No 
step  will  be  taken  in  the  direction  of  such  danger.  And  it 
is  probable  that  even  some  of  our  free  silver  mine  owning 
Senators  are  not  quite  so  blind  as  to  be  unable  to  see  the 
folly  of  expecting  any  move  abroad  in  that  direction.  But 
they  will  clamor  all  the  more  for  renewed  and  enlarged 
''recognition"  at  home,  on  a  basis  of  16  to  i,  for  their  be- 
loved metal. 


VOLUME  OF  MONEY  NEEDED. 

Owing  to  the  great  number  of  banks,  and  the  system  of 
credits  throughout  the  United  States,  we  need  less  actual 
money  per  capita  than  is  needed  anywhere  else  in  the  world. 
There  are  few  towns  of  five  hundred  population  that  have 
not  a  bank.  Less  than  5  per  cent,  of  all  payments  are  made 
in  actual  money.  The  bank  check  does  the  remainder.  A 
gives  his  check  to  B  ;  the  bank  transfers  A's  credit  to  B's 
account,  and  B  checks  in  favor  of  C,  and  so  on  through  the 
alphabet.  This  system  of  ready  credits  does  the  work  of  a 
great  volume  of  money.  It  is  not  merely  a  convenience,  but 
it  increases  profits  in  prompt  conversion  and  quick  settle- 
ments. 

Our  money  per  capita  of  about  $24  is,  under  our  banking 
system,  equal  to  a  per  capita  of  $100  in  many  countries.  We 
can  make  quicker  turns  and  do  more  business  on  $1  actual 
money  than  can  be  done  on  $5  in  a  country  that  has  few 
banks. 

The  banking  capital  of  the  United  States  exceeds  one- 
third  of  that  of  all  the  countries  of  Europe.  It  amounts  to 
$1,400,000,000,  against  $3,500,000,000  in  Europe. 

The  proportion  of  bank  deposits  in  favor  of  this  country 
is  much  greater.  These  are,  in  round  figures:  The  United 
States,  $4,000,000,000;  Europe,  $6,500,000,000. 

It  may  be  seen  that  we  have  about  $60  per  capita  in 
deposits  subject  to  call;  and  an  immense  volume  of  checks 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 


are  in  constant  circnlation.  The  total  clearing  house  ex- 
changes of  the  Uuited  States  in  1894  amounted  to  $45,615,- 
000,000.*  '  This  is  an  incredible  sum,  and  these  exchanges 
supply  the  place  of  a  great  volume  of  money.  Considering 
the  aid  of  this  circulation,  we  have  much  more  money  per 
capita  than  any  other  country.  France,  with  $36  actual 
money  per  capita,  has  only  about  $20  per  capita  in  bank 
deposits.  • 

Another  advantage  we  have  is  in  the  great  number  of 
small  banks,  widely  scattered,  and  a  corresponding  number 
of  small  deposits,  a  large  per  cent,  of  which  are,  in  the  form 
of  the  bank  check,  constantly  on  the  wing ;  and  one  must  be 
a  banker  to  know  how  much  money  people  get  the  use  of  by 
sending  checks  all  over  the  country  before  deposits  are  made 
to  cover  them.  Many  business  firms  constantly  keep  out 
thousands  of  dollars  of  checks  with  never  a  dollar  of  their 
own  money  in  bank.  They  send  these  checks  from  Maine 
to  California,  making  careful  estimates  as  to  how  long  it 
takes  them  to  get  round  to  the  banks  they  are  drawn  on,  and 
deposit  money,  or  similar  checks  (the  greater  per  cent,  of  de- 
posits being  other  checks),  in  time  to  make  them  good.  The 
volume  of  such  checks,  drawn  against  blank  bank  balances, 
is  immense,  and  this  class  of  checks  alone  answers  for  a  large 
circulating  medium. 

We  have  an  abundance  of  money  in  this  country,  if  it  were 
more  evenly  distributed  as  to  sections.  It  unduly  accumu- 
lates in  the  centers  under  our  present  currency  system,  and 
will  continue  to  do  so  as  long  as  the  bulk  of  the  money  is  issued 
directly  by  the  government. 

The  great  need  of  the  South  and  other  sections  remote 
from  the  centers,  is  a  flexible  bank  note  currency.  Not  an 
issue  by  banks  of  the  wildcat  order,  but  a  currency  as  good 
as  the  national  bank  note,  though  more  flexible  than  that 
now  is,  and  adapted  to  the  varying  seasons  and  conditions.  -^ 
The  South  has  no  interest  in  the  Western  silver,  mines.  It^J 
has  nothing  to  gain  by  unloading  the  product  on  the  govern- 
ment. And  it  should  turn  its  attention  to  its  own  practical . 
needs,  the  most  important  of  which  is  a  safe  bank  note,™ 
currency.  And  particularly  so  since  a  part  of  that  plan  '^ 
would  take  the  government  out  of  the  banking  business,  re- 
lieve the  treasury  of  its  disturbing  embarrassments,  and  so  | 

'•Monetary  Systems  of  the  World.— Muhleinan. 


DOIvIvARvS,  OR  WHAT?  21 

hasten  good  times  that  the  Western  miners  would  become  a 
hopeless  and  a  helpless  minority.f 


ISSUING  PAPER  AGAINST  SILVER. 

One  of  the  theories  of  free  silver  advocates  is  that  the 
government  can  buy  silver  at  about  60  cents  an  ounce,  and 
issue  paper  money — ^(generally  called  silver  certificates) — 
against  it  on  abasis  of  16  to  i  of  gold;  which  would  make 
$1.00  of  the  silver  certificate  represent  less  than  60  cents, 
worth  of  silver  held  against  it  for  its  redemption.  In  other 
words,  if  the  government  should  buy  say  $55  worth  of  silver, 
it  would  be  required  to  issue  and  put  into  circulation  $100  in 
silver  certificates.  (The  exact  cost  of  the  silver  would  depend 
on  the  market  price  at  the  time  of  purchase.)  The  $55  worth 
of  silver  would  be  coined  into  one  hundred  silver  dollars,  and 
any  holder  of  the  certificates  would  be  entitled  to  exchange 
them  for  the  coined  silver.  This  was  in  part  the  principle  of 
the  Sherman  law. 

But  as  the  writer  has  elsewhere  clearly  shown,  the  mere 
stamp  of  the  government  on  paper  gives  it  no  value,  unless 
there  be  a  promise  to  pay,  and  to  make  the  promise  trusted, 
it  must  be  a  promise  of  full  payment. 

Now  these  silver  certificates  put  out  under  the  Sherman 
law  were  made  payable  in  silver  dollars,  and  as  silver  de- 
clined, and  these  silver  dollars  declined  in  intrinsic  market- 
able value  till  they  were  worth  little  more  than  fifty  cents 
each,  the  silver  certificates  would  have  been  worth  just  the 
same  but  for  the  fact  that  it  was  the  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment, regardless  of  the  law,  to  keep  all  of  its  money  on  a 
parity.  It  was  its  policy  to  make  its  promise,  as  was  origi- 
nally intended,  fully  good — to  make  all  of  its  dollars  redeem- 
able in  100  cents  good  money ;  therefore,  the  government 
accepted  the  silver  certificates  and  silver  dollars  as  well,  for 
all  dues,  made  them  interchangeable  with  and  practically  re- 
deemable in  gold.  Otherwise  we  should  have  had  moneys 
of  varying  values.  The  silver  and  silver  certificates  would 
have  been  worth  55  or  60  cents,  varying  with  the  market 

tSee  an  article  in  this  book,  "Bank  Note  Circukition." 


22  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

value   of  silver,  and  other  money  actually  based    on 
would  have  been  worth  loo  cents. 

So  it  may  be  seen  that  paper  money  cannot  be  issued 
against  silver  at  a  ratio  of  i6  to  i,  and  be  full  face  valuQ 
money,  unless  it  be  interchangeable  with  gold.  And,  as 
elsewhere  clearly  shown,  the  gold  reserve  is  not  strong  enoug 
to  carry  any  increased  volume  of  money. 

Moreover  the  government  has  directly  lost  an.incredibl 
sum  making  such  experiments.  Since  1873,  ^^  has  bought 
for  monetary  purposes  silver  costing  five  hundred  and  nine 
million  dollars.  (See  report,  1894,  Bureau  of  the  Mint.)  The 
shrinkage  in  value  from  the  average  cost  of  $1.00  per  fine 
ounce  has  been  enormous. 

These   experiments   were   forced   on  the  government 
"compromises"  by  advocates  of  free  silver  coinage. 

The  New  York  Times^  in  a  series  of  carefully  prepared 
articles,  based  on  actual  statistics,  lately  showed  that  the 
losses  to  the  government  on  fiat  paper  money  and  silver,  have 
cost  it  more  than  two  thousand  millions  of  dollars.  And  the 
policy  that  prompted  such  money  has  cost  the  country  more 
than  five  thousand  millions  of  dollars.  This  estimate  is  far^ 
within  the  true  loss. 

The  financial  policy  of  the  Uniced  States,  dictated  for  20 
years  by  the  mining  camps  of  the  West,  would  have  beggared 
and  bankrupted  both  the  government  and  the  people,  if  the 
country  had  not  been   new,  and   the   most   resourceful  o 
earth. 

Theorizing  is  well  enough  for  dreamers,  but  in  matters  of 
business,  common  sense  and  well  known  principles  are  the^ 
only  safe  guides. 

Free  silver  politicians  who  want  votes,  and  Western  mine 
owners  who  want  other  people's  money  at  any  cost,  (to  the 
other  people,)  have  a  theory  never  tried  under  like  conditions 
in  any  country  in  the  world,  and  they  would  commit  us  to 
that  theory  in  complete  disregard  of  consequences. 


IS 

It      " 

e 

e 


DOIvLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  23 

"  DISCRIMINATION  "  AGAINST  SILVER. 

I  have  before  me  the  U.  S.  Treasurer's  report  for  1894, 
in  which  it  is  estimated  that  in  June,  1878,  there  was  in  the 
country  a  total  silver  circulation  of  only  $87,693,799. 

The  free  silver  advocate  claims  that  since  1873  there  has 
been  unrighteous  and  criminal  "  discrimination ''  against 
silver.  But  what  are  the  facts?  Up  to  1878,  the  entire 
coinage  of  the  country  for  a  century  had  given  us  a  total 
accumulation  of  only  about  eighty-seven  millions  of  dollars; 
but  since  1878  the  coinage  has  been  so  great  that  we  have 
now  an  accumulation  of  six  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions 
of  dollars. 

In  other  words,  seventeen  years  ago  we  had  about  one- 
seventh  as  much  silver  money  as  we  have  to-day.  Our  stock 
has  increased  five  hundred  and  thirty-eight  millions  in 
seventeen  years.  And  by  far  the  largest  annual  increase  was 
in  the  years  1890-1893,  when  prices  were  fast  declining. 

Does  this  look  like  discrimination  ?  Not  only  has  there 
been  this  incredible  increase,  but  the  entire  stock  of  silver 
dollars  is  made  a  full  legal  tender;  and  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  the  intrinsic  and  marketable  value  of  this  mass  of 
money  has  been  for  some  time  at  a  discount  of  nearly  50  per 
cent,  from  its  face  value,  and  its  legal  tender,  or  debt-paying 
value,  it  is  made  as  good  as  any  other  money  for  all' practical 
purposes.  This  parity  has  been  maintained  at  a  cost  to  the 
country  of  tens  of  millions  of  dollars  of  gold,  and  also  to  the 
great  disturbance  of  all  business  and  commercial  relations. 

The  truth  is,  that  all  financial  legislation  for  twenty  years 
has  tended  directly  to  the  vastly  enlarged  use  of  silver  as 
money,  increasing  its  use  as  shown,  seven  times  in  seventeen 
years.  The  effort  has  failed  in  so  far  as  concerns  its  actual 
circulation  as  money,  owing  to  the  fact  that  people  will 
handle  but  small  quantities  of  it.  They  turn  it  into  the 
banks,  and  the  banks  turn  it  into  the  treasury  and  get  other 
money  in  exchange  for  it ;  and  there  it  lies  idle  and  useless, 
serving  only  to  disturb  confidence  in  our  financial  system. 
As  stated  elsewhere,  there  are  now  only  fifty-six  million 
silver  dollars  actually  in  circulation,  this  being  all  the 
country  appears  willing  to  use.  Then  why  should  we  want 
to  coin  any  more  silver?  Why  should  we  want  free  coinage 
or  unlimited  coinage? 


24  DOI.LARS,  OR  WHAT? 

Inasmuch  as  little  more  than  one  legal  tender  dollar  in 
of  the  present  stock  of  silver  can  actually  be  put  into  the 
channels  of  business,  would  it  not  be  better  to  quit  agitating 
its  further  coinage,  and  quit  disturbing  confidence  in  the 
basis  of  our  financial  system  ? 

It  is  pertinent  in  this  connection  to  suggest,  that  if  the 
increased  or  decreased  use  of  silver  as  money  has  anything 
to  do  with  "  prices,"  as  the  free  coinage  advocate  claims, 
prices  ought  to  have  been  going  up  at  a  rapid  rate  during,™, 
the  past  seventeen  years.  'm 

The  ingenious  author  of  "Coin  "  has  figured  to  a  nicety " 
that  the  decline  in  wheat  has  been  almost  exactly  the  same 
as  the  decline  of  silver. 

From  the  same  point  of  view,  "prices"  ought  to  react 
with  the  increased  use  of  silver;  and  if  wheat  was  worth, 
say,  (for  easy  illustration)  $i.oo  per  bushel  in  1878,  it  ought 
now  be  worth  $7.00  per  bushel,  since  we  now  have  seven 
times  as  much  silver  money  as  then.  Coffee  was  worth  11 
cents  per  pound  in  1878,  and  ought  therefore  now  bring^ 
77  cents.  ^  _      ■ 

All  such  figuring  and  reasoning  are  the  foolish  straining " 
of   a  foolish  theory,  and  have  no  basis  whatever   in   fact. 
And  yet  upon  this  idea  rests  almost  the  entire  claim  for 
unlimited  coinage  of  silver. 


i 


"DEMONETIZATION"  OF  SILVER. 

"  Demonetization  "  is  a  word  used  in  this  connection  with 
much  looseness,  and  is  generally  misunderstood.  It  is  a 
favorite  word  with  writers  and  speakers  careless  of  what  they 
say,  or  who  intentionally  deceive  and  misrepresent  the  facts. 
And  many  persons  are  led  to  believe  that  "  demonetization" 
means  an  attempt  to  abandon  the  use  of  silver  for  monetary  jj 
purposes.  U 

All  silver  dollars  now  in  circulation  are  a  legal  tender  for 
the  payment  of  all  debts,  public  and  private,  and  the  govern- 
ment makes  no  discrimination  whatever  against  silver 
money.  All  legislation  has  been  directly  in  favor  of  the 
metal  in  the  attempt  to  support  it,  and  in  consequence,  the 
"discrimination"  has  really  and  seriously  been  against  goldi 


i 


DOIvLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  25 

[The  old  Trade  Dollar  is  not  a  legal  tender,  and  for  that 
reason  went  out  of  use.  It  is  not  supported  by  the  govern- 
ment gold  reserve,  and  consequently  it  cannot  be  exchanged 
for  a  gold  dollar  nor  for  a  legal  tender  silver  or  paper  dollar. 
It  is,  therefore,  worth  only  about  50  cents,  although  it  has 
the  dollar  stamp  of  the  United  States  on  its  face.  This  is 
clear  proof  of  what  our  silver  money  would  be  worth  if 
it  were  not  interchangeable  with  gold.  The  mere  stamp  of 
the  United  States,  or  of  any  other  country,  could  not  make 
it  worth,  in  purchasing  power,  more  than  about  50  cents,  its 
commercial  value  in  weight.] 

The  repeal  of  the  Sherman  law  did  not  in  any  way  affect 
the  $625,000,000  of  silver  now  in  the  treasury,  and  in  circu- 
lation, unless,  indeed,  it  strengthened  its  value  and  its 
position  as  good  money.  The  "gold  bugs"  are  not  trying 
to  destroy  the  use  of  this  silver.  On  the  contrary,  all  advo- 
cates of  sound  money  want  to  continue  it  in  safe  quantities 
in  use  as  good  money. 

The  government  has  merely  quit  making  any  more  silver 
dollars.  That  is  all  the  "  demonetizing"  that  has  been  done. 
The  silver  we  have  is  as  good,  as  money,  as  it  ever  was,  and 
will  remain  so,  unless  the  free  coinage  people  succeed  in 
putting  us  on  a  free  silver  basis,  in  which  event  it  would  not 
be  worth  more  than  half  its  present  value,  if,  indeed,  it 
would  eventually  be  worth  that. 

And  it  would,  for  a  time  at  least,  be  a  good  deal  harder  to 
get  one  of  the  cheap  silver  dollars  under  free  coinage  than  it 
is  to  get  a  good  silver  dollar  now,  because  all  gold  would  go 
out  of  circulation,  and  we  should  have  much  less  money  than 
now,  to  say  nothing  of  its  greatly  reduced  purchasing  power. 

There  is  absolutely  no  "demonetizing"  of  silver  in  the 
sense  the  word  is  understood  by  the  mass  of  voters.  ,  It  is 
used  merely  to  deceive  and  mislead. 


THE  "APPRECIATION"  OF  GOLD. 

The  free  coinage  people  assert  that  gold  has  "appreciated" 
in  value,  and  that  its  appreciation  has  depressed  all  other 
values.     This,  like  very  many  other  loose  assertions  from 


26  DOIvI/ARS,  OR  WHAT? 

this  source,  has  no  foundation  in  fact.  On  the  contrary,  gold 
is  vastly  more  abundant,  and  more  readily  obtainable,  than 
ever  before  in  the  world's  history.  Its  production  and  cir- 
culation have  increased  within  thirty-five  years  more  than 
twenty  times  the  ratio  of  the  increase  in  the  world's  popula- 
tion. This  estimate  is  based  on  actual  statistics  of  produc- 
tion. 

About  one-half  the  world's  production  of  gold  during  the 
past  400  years  has  been  produced  within  the  last  thirty-five 
years.*  This  fact,  and  the  well  known  increase  of  gold  as 
money. within  the  memory  of  comparatively  young  men, 
completely  refute  the  claim  that  gold  is  and  has  been  "ap- 
preciating." Things  or  commodities  do  not  "appreciate" 
when  they  become  more  plentiful. 

Cotton  has  depreciated  greatly  in  value  because  the  crop 
has  from  year  to  year  largely  increased.  Planters  have  at- 
tempted to  secure  a  general  agreement  to  reduce  the  acreage, 
believing  that  by  so  doing,  and  thus  materially  reducing  the 
supply,  they  could  "appreciate"  its  value  and  advance  its 
price.     The  same  general  law  must  apply  to  gold. 

It  would  be  hard  to  demonstrate  just  what  relation  the 
volume  of  stable  money  has  on  prices,  since  they  often  de- 
cline or  advance  without  apparent  reference  to  monetary 
conditions.  Supply  and  demand  are  more  important  factors 
than  the  volume  of  money.  But  common  sense  teaches  that 
no  particular  kind  of  money  can  "appreciate"  in  value  when 
the  supply  is  largely  increased,  as  in  the  case  of  gold. 
Through  its  large  production  only,  silver  has  depreciated. 
And  men  now  living  may  possibly  see  a  depreciation  in  gold 
from  the  same  causes. 

With  the  present  annual  gold  production,  and  the  outlook 
for  increased  production,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  output  for 
the  next  twenty  years  will  equal  •  the  total  product  for  five 
hundred  years  preceding  i860. 

The  output  in  1894  was  about  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  million  dollars  ;  in  1895  it  promises  to  reach  two  hundred 
millions.  That  is  to  say,  the  world  will  produce  as  much 
gold  in  1895  as  was  produced  in  fifty  years  about  the  time 
America  was  discovered  ;  or  to  come  to  more  recent  years, 
double  as  much  as  was  produced  in  the  ten  years  1821  to 
1830;  nearly  as  much  as  was  produced  in  the  ten  years  1831 
to  1840 ;  one-half  as  much  as  was  produced  in  the  ten  years 

*  See  tables  of  world's  production  in  report  of  Director  of  the  Mint. 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  27 

1841  to  1850;  more  than  a  third  as  much  as  was  produced  in 
five  years  from  187 1  to  1875;  nearly  as  much  as  was  pro- 
duced in  five  years  from  1881  to  1885 ;  and  double  as  much, 
lacking  a  few  millions,  as  was  produced  in  1887.  Since  1887 
the  production  has  been  more  remarkable  than  during  any 
other  period  of  the  world's  history. 

Recent  gold  discoveries  in  Africa,  South  America,  Austra- 
lia, and  other  parts  of  the  world,  are  many  of  them  rich  be- 
yond computation.  We  are  in  a  gold  era,  such  as  our  fathers, 
nor  even  we,  ever  dreamed  of. 

Inasmuch  as  more  than  one-half  the  gold  production  for 
four  hundred  years  has  been  within  the  memory  of  compara- 
tively young  men,  and  inasmuch  as  that  production  is  in  a 
fair  way  to  double  before  they  become  very  old  men,  the  talk 
about  the  "appreciation"  of  gold  is  very  foolish ;  so  foolish, 
indeed,  that  it  will  not  be  indulged  by  well  informed  persons, 
unless  for  purposes  of  deception.  There  is  the  greatest 
abundance  of  gold  m  all  channels  of  business  in  the  great 
nations  of  Europe,  and  more  than  one-third  of  the  money  of 
the  United  States  is  gold,  enough  for  all  practical  purposes 
if  the  free  silver  people  should  cease  to  threaten  to  drive  it 
out  with  cheaper  money. 


GOLD  THE  "MONEY  OF  THE  PEOPLE." 

One  of  the  theories  of  free  coinage  advocates  is  that  silver 
should  hold  its  place  with  gold  as  money  because  there  is 
about  the  same  amount  in  value  of  each  in  the  world.  But 
they  overlook  the  fact  that  it  cannot  be  made  to  circulate  as 
money  in  considerable  quantities.  There  is,  in  the  United 
States,  $9  in  silver  per  capita.  But  excepting  the  fractional 
silver  used  for  change,  there  is  only  about  80  cents  per  capita 
outside  the  Treasury  vaults,  and  probably  little  more  than 
half  of  that,  say  50  cents  per  capita,  is  in  active  circulation. 
The  people  find  it  too  heavy  to  carry  about,  so  they  use  other 
money,  and  the  silver  all  drifts  back  to  the  government  stor- 
age vaults.  The  greater  part  of  the  gold  of  the  country, 
however,  has  always  been  in  circulation.  It  is  used  largely 
in  the  settlement  of  bank  balances,  and  it  is  a  favorite  money 


28  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

with  tens  of  thousands  of  the  common  people  who  put  by 
small  savings.  A  few  gold  pieces  may  be  carried  in  the  vest 
pocket,  or  put  in  a  secret  place  without  attracting  attention 
or  the  danger  of  discovery ;  silver,  more  bulky  and  heavier, 
is  less  easily  carried  or  concealed.  Rarely  is  silver  secreted 
if  the  holder  has  enough  to  exchange  for  a  gold  piece.  Gold 
is  really  the  "Money  of  the  People,"  as  is  clearly  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  the  people  are  now  using  about  nine  times 
as  much  gold  as  silver,  silver  change  excepted,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  silver  and  gold  exist  in  the  country  as  money 
in  about  equal  quantities. 

In  November  last  (see  page  42,  Report  Bureau  of  the  Mint) 
there  was  $500,381,380  gold  coin  in  the  hands  of  the  people. 
On  the  same  date  there  was  only  $56,443,670  in  silver  dollars 
in  the  hands  of  the  people.  On  the  same  date  (see  page  41, 
Report  of  Director  of  Mint)  the  stocks  of  the  two  metals  i 
the  country  were : 


Gold $626,632,068 

Silver 625,335,551 


I 


The  following  table  shows  the  amount  of  silver  dollars  in 
actual  circulation  each  year  since  1885.  (See  Mint  Report 
for  1894,  page  23):  j| 

1886 $61,000,000  ^H 

1887 ; 62,000,000 

1888 59,000,000 

1889 60,000,000 

1890 65,000,000 

1891 ... 62,000,000 

1892 61,000,000 

1893 58,000,000 

1894 56,000,000 

Round  figures  are  given.     This  includes  the  silver  doll 
held  by  the  banks,  and  handled  by  them  at  a  loss. 

These  statistics  are  significant,  and  might  be  studied 
advantage  by  "  Coin,"  and  others  who  preach  free  silver. 

The  simple  figures  show  that  gold  and  not  silver  is  th 
people's  favorite  money  metal. 

On  July  ist,  1894,  the  National  Banks,  which  are  popula 
ly  supposed  to  own  all  the  gold  in  the  country,  held  only 
$125,051,677  net  gold  coin,  (see  report  Bureau  of  the  Mint, 
page  40)  and  only  $34,023,000  gold  certificates.  That  is  to 
say,  that  out  of  $626,000,000  gold  in  the  country,  the  na 
tional  banks  held  about  one-fifth. 

It   is  a  mistaken  notion   that  there  has  ever  been  an; 


I 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  29 

'*  combination  "  among  these  banks  to  corner  gold,  and  the 
simple  figures  make  that  fact  plain  without  argument..  The 
figures  also  show  clearly  that  it  is  the  people  themselves  who 
own  and  control  the  bulk  of  the  country's  supply  of  that 
metal.  And  it  is  largely  held  in  small  sums  by  the  common 
people.  Gold  is  indeed  the  money  of  the  masses,  and  if  the 
people  are  given  the  simple  truth,  and  get  to  understand  the 
facts  elsewhere  stated,  that  it  is  the  single  purpose  of  a  large 
element  of  the  free  silver  party  to  drive  gold  out  of  the  coun- 
try and  leave  only  silver,  they  will  turn  a  mighty  cold  shoul- 
der to  the  deceptive  pleas  of  the  free  silver  advocates. 

There  is  no  doubt  at  all  of  the  fixed  and  determined  pur- 
pose of  the  Western  mine  owners,  represented  by  tlieir 
partners  in  Congress,  to  force  the  country  to  the  single  silver 
standard,  with  silver  as  the  only  coin  in  use.  Any  man  who 
has  carefully  followed  their  course  for  ten  years,  in  and  out 
of  Congress,  sees  and  understands  this  as  clear  as  day.  They 
are  playing  a  desperate  game  for  what  they  believe  to  be 
large  personal  gains.  They  have  been  an  absolute  unit  in 
aim,  purpose  and  organization,  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder 
in  every  emergency,  subverting  all  other  public  questions 
and  interests  to  their  own  single  common  purpose  of  making 
the  Government  the  unlimited  purchaser  of  the  products  of 
their  mines.  With  an  organization  compact  and  intensely 
selfish  and  powerful,  they  have  long  practically  held  the 
balance  of  power  in  the  Senate,  kept  the  Government  waver- 
ing between  sound  and  unsound  financiering,  wholly  pre- 
venting a  safe,  consistent  policy.  They  have  for  years 
pursued  their  end  with  restless  and  untiring  vigilance  and 
tenacity,  hanging  up  important  measures  and  blocking  the 
public  business  at  every  step.  Their  complete  organization 
and  defiant  attitude  has  time  and  again  cowed  and  demoral- 
ized both  houses  of  Congress.  They  have  misled  many 
good,  able  and  honest  law-makers  and  very  many  good  citi- 
zens. They  have  influenced  in  their  favor  whole  sections  of 
country  that  would  be  impoverished  if  they  should  succeed 
in  driving  out  the  real  ''  money  of  the  people  "  and  giving 
the  people  for  money  only  such  metal  as  they  themselves 
have  to  sell. 

The  people  have  no  time  to  study  finances,  nor  to  set  a 
watch  upon  these  ingenious,  scheming  and  greedy  agitators 
to  discover  their  motives  and  plans ;  but  they  should  be  given 
the  facts,  plainly  stated. 


30  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

Several  Western  millionaires  are  now  reported  to  be  nego- 
tiating for  one  or  more  New  York  newspapers  with  which  to 
inflnence  people  to  vote  additional  millions  into  the  pockets 
of  the  mine  owners.  These  men  care  nothing  abont  the 
welfare  of  the  people.  They  merely  want  to  sell  silver  at 
high  prices  to  the  Government. 


THE  GENERAL  DECLINE  IN  PRICES. 

There  has  been  a  steady  and  persistent  decline  in  p 
since  1865,  and  the  alleged  "  demonetization  "  of  silver  in 
1873  neither  checked  nor  hastened  that  decline.  We  emerged 
in  1865  from  the  greatest  war  in  modern  times.  War  is  a 
great  destroyer  as  well  as  a  great  consumer.  During  the 
war  period  the  demand  had  greatly  exceeded  the  supply  in 
all  lines.  The  sources  of  production  had  also  been  cut  off, 
or  reduced,  and  prices  had  gone  skyward.  Decline  was  in- 
evitable and  immediately  set  in.  Any  one  in  the  mercantile 
business  during  the  period  from  1865  to  1878  will  remember 
distinctly  the  difficulty  of  selling  at  a  profit  any  stock  that 
lay  a  few  months  on  the  shelves. 

The  tremendous  march  of  modern  progress  began  about 
this  time  to  become  a  great  factor  in  the  reduction  of  prices. 
During  the  period  since  1870  the  forces  of  civilization  have 
developed  more  power  and  progress  than  in  five  hundred 
years,  or  even  a  thousand  years  before  that  time.  The  great 
alleged  ''  crime"  of  "  demonetization"  in  1873  ^^^  ^^t  create 
a  ripple  in  the  resistless  sweep  of  modern  ideas,  invention, 
enterprise  and  development.  Railroads  have  belted  the 
earth,  reaching  thousands  of  miles  into  wonderfully  rich  and 
formerly  unexplored  regions,  enlarging  and  cheapening  be- 
yond computation  the  production  of  every  cultivated  thing 
that  grows  from  the  ground,  and  equalizing  (with  cheap 
transportation,  which  has  grown  cheaper  every  year)  all 
supplies  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Ocean  tonnage  has  also 
been  largely  increased  and  carrying  rates  largely  reduced. 
Steam  has  supplanted  the  sail ;  the  six  months'  voyage  of 
thirty-five  years  ago  is  now  measured  by  days  or  weeks. 
Where  capital  was  formerly  tied  up  for  weeks  in  an  ocean 


DOIvIvARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  31 

shipment,  it  is  now  released  within  a  few  days.  Where  sales 
and  purchases  were  made  through  months  of  correspondence 
by  letter^  the  telegraph  and  cable  now  do  the  work  in  a  few 
hours.  The  cost  of  doing  a  given  volume  of  business  is  re- 
duced by  50  per  cent.  All  of  these  things  have  contributed 
to  the  steady  and  swift  reduction  of  prices. 

It  should  be  needless  to  direct  attention  to  the  marvelous 
improvement  and  development  in  mechanical  appliances 
within  twenty-five  years — a  development  probably  exceeding 
that  of  all  time  from  the  days  of  Adam.  The  cheapening  of 
all  manufactured  products  has  been  in  direct  ratio  to  the  in- 
crease and  perfection  of  these  appliances.  And  they  have 
also  greatly  reduced  the  cost  of  growing  and  harvesting 
wheat,  corn,  cotton  and  other  agricultural  products. 

The  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  could  no  more  have  stayed 
the  effect  of  these  forces  than  a  bunch  of  straw  would  turn 
Niagara.  They  have  simply  developed  new  and  strange 
conditions,  whether  for  the  good  of  mankind  or  the  reverse 
remains  yet  an  unsolved  problem.  But  it  would  seem  that 
in  the  end  great  good  must  come  from  the  cheapening  of  the 
cost  of  all  the  necessities,  comforts  and  luxuries  of  living. 
Labor  problems,  and  many  vexing  questions  and  issues  not 
now  quite  clear,  must  be  adjusted.  But  silver  has  no  place 
whatever  in  these  adjustments. 

We  have  had  a  transformation  since  the  "  demonetization" 
of  silver.  We  are  living  in  a  new  age.  And  the  free  silver 
advocates  have  as  yet  been  unable  to  comprehend  or  accept 
the  conditions.  They  have  eyes  but  do  not  see.  They  cling 
to  the  dead  past,  and  live  on  a  pleasing  but  foolish  memory. 
Some  of  them  are  garrulous  and  miserable.  Others  are  spite- 
ful and  venomous,  because  they  foolishly  believe  that  the 
great  marching  procession  has  ''conspired"  against  them 
and  against  the  idol  they  have  so  long  cherished  with  single- 
ness of  heart  and  pathetic  devotion.  They  are  mischievous, 
because  some  of  them  have  filled  high  places.  Many  people 
are  impressed  with  the  tenacity  of  their  devotion ;  others  are 
attracted  by  the  noise  they  make.  But  they  are  as  unsafe 
guides  as  an  old  man  in  his  dotage  with  a  host  of  imaginary 
wrongs. 


DOIvIvARS,  OR  WHAT? 


OLD  TIME  PRICES. 

Who  has  not  heard  his  father  or  his  grandfather  talk  about 
prices  in  the  days  when  there  were  no  railroads — when  every 
neighborhood  was  a  market  unto  itself,  and  the  silver  "  dollar 
of  the  constitution"  was  good  enough  for  anybody? 

How  the  dear  old  fellows  like  to  talk  of  the  good  old  days 
when  farm  hands  got  $60  a  year  and  a  potato  patch  thrown 
in  for  good  count ;  when  corn  sold  at  20  cents  a  bushel,  sheep 
at  50  cents  a  head,  and  fine  beef  cattle,  sleek  and  fat,  at  $S 
and  $10  each,  average,  for  the  "bunch"  ;  when  a  strapping 
young  fellow,  brimful  of  vim  and  high  hope,  thought  himself 
in  luck  and  the  envy  of  his  fellows  if  he  got  a  place  in  the 
village  store  at  $75  a  year  and  "found"  himself;  when  the 
smart  lusty  "chap"  went  to  serve  at  a  trade  at  $20  a  year,  a 
few  coarse  clothes,  and  a  cot  in  the  garret  "to  boot."  Not 
many  years  ago  the  writer  was  wont  to  smoke  a  cigar  after 
supper  with  a  fine  old  gentleman  who  never  tired  in  the  re- 
cital of  incidents  of  those  days  of  good  will  and  good  cheer. 
And  how  he  loved  to  dwell  on  the  time  when  he  entered  the 
biggest  store  in  his  part  of  the  state  at  $100  a  year,  being  re- 
warded for  faithful  service  with  an  additional  $50  when 
Christmas  came.  Ah,  those  were  piping  times  of  peace  and 
plenty!  There  were  no  "gold  bugs"  then.  Th^e  were  no 
national  banks,  with  hated  privileges.  Anybody  who  could 
start  a  printing  press  could  go  into  banking  and  issue  money. 
True,  the  money  had  to  be  pretty  well  sorted  before  the  old 
fellows  started  on  a  journey,  and  they  were  never  quite  sure 
it  would  be  good  when  their  destination  was  reached,  but 
such  inconveniences  were  good-naturedly  accepted.  There 
were  no  "conspirators"  then  to  vex  Uncle  Sam  and  other 
honest  folks.  There  was  no  "contraction"  of  the  currency. 
The  few  millions  of  gold  and  silver  were  so  widely  and 
sparsely  scattered  that  the  most  wicked  ingenuity  could  get 
but  little  of  it  together;  and  as  to  the  paper,  the  "bankers" 
who  put  it  out,  it  being  their  own  product,  were  never  in  a 
hurry  to  get  it  back  ;  and  so  great  indeed  was  their  reluctance 
to  call  it,  that  much  of  it  is  out  to  this  good  day. 

The  great  "crime"  of  the  age  had  not  then  been  commit- 
ted. Silver  had  not  then  been  "demonetized."  And  I  have 
sometimes  thought  what  a  happy  circumstance  it  would  have 
been  if  some  of  the  "friends"  of  silver  had  lived  at  that  time, 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  33 

when  nobody  had  ever  thought  of  discriminating"  against 
their  cherished  metal.  But  the  prices  then  would  have  been 
harrowing  to  their  souls,  free  coinage  and  silver  at  a  premium 
considered.  "Prices"  are  a  great  worry  to  the  "friends"  of 
silver,  as,  indeed,  they  are  to  all  the  rest  of  us.  Even  corn 
at  45  cents  a  bushel  and  labor  at  90  cents  a  day,  with  "  de- 
monetized" silver,  vexes  them  beyond  measure ;  and  it  would 
not  be  safe  to  say  what  might  have  been  the  effect  on  Peffer, 
Stewart  and  Bland,  for  instance,  if  they  had  seen  free  silver, 
with  farm  wages  $5  per  month  and  corn  20  cents  a  bushel. 
But  the  writer  trusts  he  may  be  pardoned  the  wish,  which 
ought  not  to  be  an  unkind  one,  that  these  three,  and  a  few 
others,  had  indeed  been  of  that  generation.  Possibly  some 
of  them  were  living  in  those  days ;  but  if  so,  free  and  high 
price  silver  and  corn  at  20  cents  must  have  cost  them  many 
serious  and  painful  reflections,  which,  h®wever,  they  have 
doubtless  forgotten.  Silver  at  16  to  i  was  more  valuable 
than  gold  (there  being  mined  then  several  thousand  million 
dollars  less  than  now),  but  there  were  no  sky-scraping  pric«s 
of  farm  products,  which  is  a  curious  circumstance,  from  the 
Stewart-Peffer  point  of  view. 


SILVER  AND  WHEAT. 

The  world's  production  of  wheat  has  grown  from  two 
thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-three  million  bushels  in 
1 89 1  to  two  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty- five  million 
bushels  in  1894.  This  is  a  gain  in  supply  of  two  bundred  and 
twelve  million  bushels.  But  a  more  significant  fact,  and  one 
of  greater  concern  to  American  agriculturists,  is  that  the 
wheat  exporting  countries  of  South  America  and  Russia 
have  in  this  period  gained  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  million 
bushels  in  wheat  production.  That  is  to  say,  in  1894  Russia 
and  South  America  had  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  million 
bushels  more  wheat  to  sell  in  competition  with  the  wheat  of 
the  United  States  than  they  had  in  1891.  And  a  matter  of 
still  greater  significance  and  concern  is  that  the  large  export 
surplus  of  fifty  million  bushels  of  the  Argentine  Republic 
last  year  was  produced  at  a  cost  estimated  not  to  exceed 


34  DOLIvARS,  OR  WHAT? 

thirty-four  to  thirty-seven  cents  per  bushel  laid  down  at  the 
seaboard  shipping  point.*  Considering  these  facts,  and  the 
enormous  crop  harvested  in  the  United  States  in  1894,  is  it 
necessary  for  the  American  farmer  to  puzzle  his  brain  for  an 
explanation  of  the  low  price  of  wheat  ?  Is  silver  somehow 
at  the  bottom  of  it,  as  is  foolishly  stated  in  "  Coin^s  Financial 
School,"  or  is  it  a  tremendous  overproduction  and  a  com- 
pletely glutted  market?  Is  it  the  "crime"  against  the  prod- 
uct of  the  Western  silver  mines,  represented  by  Stewart, 
Peffer  and  associates,  or  is  it  the  result  of  the  opening  up 
and  cultivation  of  vast  new  tracts  of  the  Lord's  bountiful 
earth  ? 

There  was  more  coined  silver  and  more  idle  money  of  all 
kinds  in  the  United  States  in  1894,  when  wheat  touched  its 
lowest  price,  than  ever  before.  The  New  York  Times,  of 
March  25,  1895,  from  which  the  statistics  are  taken,  com- 
menting on  the  effect  of  overproduction  on  prices,  says : 

**The  natural  effect  of  such  increase,  in  exporting  coun- 
tries, on  prices,  can  easily  be  seen.  It  may  be  noted,  also, 
that  Russia  has  an  export  surplus  of  192,000,000  bushels  of 
rye,  against  70,000,000  bushels  a  year  ago." 

This  item  of  122,000,000  bushels  increased  surplus  of  a 
cereal  largely  substituted  for  wheat  in  many  countries  has 
been  an  important  factor  in  determining  prices. 

The  depression  of  business  and  the  blocking  of  all  kinds 
of  enterprise  on  account  of  silver  agitation  has  also  contrib- 
uted something  toward  depressing  wheat.  People  cannot  buy 
bread  freely  unless  they  have  work.  Capital,  too,  has  been 
timid  of  investment  in  wheat,  as  in  everything  else ;  and  the 
withdrawal  of  this  sustaining  influence  has  been  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  the  sagging  of  prices  of  all  commodities. 


SILVER  AND  COFFEE. 


Reversing  the  order  of  wheat  and  cotton,  coffee  has  ad- 
vanced gradually  and  enormously  during  the  past  ten  years. 

The  writer,  being  at  the  time  in  the  wholesale  grocery 
business,  remembers  that  about  1885  he  bought  coffee  in  New 

*  Estimates  by  the  New  York  Times. 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  35 

York  at  about  7  cents  per  pound  for  fair  grades.  It  is  now 
worth  18  cents  per  pound. 

Silver  was  worth  $1.06  per  ounce  in  1885.  It  is  worth  a 
little  over  60  cents  per  ounce  now.  If  the  price  of  silver 
regulates  the  prices  of  other  things,  why  has  coffee  gone  up 
nearly  300  per  cent,  in  ten  years  and  silver  gone  down  nearly 
50  per  cent? 

The  explanation  is  simple,  and  is  the  simple  explanation 
that  applies  to  the  rise  and  fall  of  wheat,  corn,  cotton  and  all 
other  products,  whether  of  the  mine,  the  mill  or  the  farm. 

The  production  and  supply  of  coffee  in  1885  was  excessive. 
More  coffee  was  produced  than  the  world  could  well  consume. 
High  prices  in  former  years  had  greatly  stimulated  its  pro- 
duction, and  an  undue  number  of  people  went  into  coffee 
growing.  The  increasing  supply  overstocked  the  markets, 
and  prices  gradually  declined. 

And  when  they  got  so  low  that  coffee  production  became 
unprofitable,  the  industry  was  abandoned  by  many  producers. 
The  supply  was  gradually  reduced,  and  stimulated  by  short 
crops,  coflfee  went  up.  Another  period  of  low  prices  in  coffee, 
brought  about  from  the  same  causes,  is  likely  after  a  time  to 
set  in. 

The  decline  or  the  advance  in  the  price  of  silver  has  no 
more  influence  on  the  marketable  value  or  prices  of  things 
than  the  remotest  star  in  heaven  on  the  tides  of  the  ocean. 


SILVER,  WHEAT  AND  COFFEE. 

Brazil  produces  a  large  per  cent,  of  the  coffee  grown.  The 
Argentine  Republic  produces  a  large  amount  of  wheat. 

Now  in  Brazil  coffee  has  advanced  in  ten  years  from  say 
6  cents  per  pound  to  say  16  or  17  cents  per  pound  on  the 
Brazilian  seaboard. 

But  note  the  contrary  course  of  wheat  in  the  Argentine 
Republic.  In  1885  the  cost  of  wheat  in  that  country  ex- 
ceeded $1.50  per  bushel.  It  is  now  about  40  cents.  The 
greater  part  of  the  crop  of  1894  was  sold  by  Argentine 
farmers  at  about  38  cents.* 
*Estimates  made  on  gold  values. 


36  DOIvLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

In  other  words,  the  wheat  product  of  Argentina,  and  of  the 
world,  gradually  grew  till  it  exceeded  the  demand,  while,  on 
the  contrary,  the  supply  of  coffee  in  Brazil  and  other  coffee 
countries  grew  less  till  the  demand  exceeded  the  supply. 

Silver  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  rise  or  the  fall 
of  either. 


SILVER  AND  COTTON. 


For  the  five  years,  1 890-1 894,  inclusive,  the  total  produc- 
tion of  cotton  in  the  United  States  was,  in  round  figures, 
44,000,000  bales.  For  the  previous  five  years  it  was  a  little 
above  34,000,000  bales.  That  is  to  say,  in  the  years  1890  to 
1894  we  grew  nearly  10,000,000  bales  more  cotton  than  in 
the  preceding  five-year  period.  The  production  also  increaseJBjl 
in  other  countries.  =™* 

With  such  tremendous  gain  in  supply,  with  an  actual  and 
substantial  falling  off  in  consumption  during  part  of  this 
period  (the  falling  oflf  amounting  to  about  500,000  bales  in 
1893),  5^eed  we  look  up  the  market  price  of  silver  to  account 
for  the  price  of  cotton? 

If  the  world  grows  more  cotton  than  it  can  sell  to  the 
spinners  and  other  manufacturers,  what  is  to  be  done  with 
the  surplus?  People  cannot  eat  it,  build  houses  of  it,  or 
otherwise  use  it.  Somebody  must  hold  it;  put  money  into 
it ;  pay  interest,  storage  and  insurance ;  give  it  time  and  at- 
tention. The  contingencies  of  future  consumption  and  sup- 
ply must  be  taken  account  of.  The  surplus  becomes  purely 
speculative,  at  greatly  reduced  value.  And  it  brings  down 
tke  price  of  the  entire  supply.  With  a  large  surplus  on  hand, 
and  a  production  of  ten  million  bales  per  year  in  the  United 
States  (an  excess  of  two  million  bales  per  annum  above 
legitimate  demands  from  this  country),  with  no  certainty,  or 
even  reasonable  probability,  of  decreased  production,  can 
aaybody  fail  to  see  why  cotton  is  lower  than  ever  before  ? 
The  State  of  Texas  alone  grew  last  year  half  as  much  cotton 
as  was  grown  in  the  entire  South  ten  years  ago ;  and  the  pro- 
duction in  that  state  can  be  largely  increased  at  a  profit,  even 
at  present  prices. 

If  silver  were  30  cents,  75  cents,  $1.00  or  $2.00  per  ounce, 


DOLLAkS,  OR  WHAT?  jt 

would  the  present  large  surplus  of  cotton  and  the  overpro- 
duction in  the  United  States  of  two  millon  bales  per  annum 
disappear?  It  would  if  the  decline  in  silver  has  been  the 
cause  of  the  decline  in  cotton,  as  the  fertile  anther  of  ''Coin," 
and  other  visionaries  have  figured  ;  but  a  practical  man  would 
say  that  the  crops  must  be  reduced  two  million  bales,  or  new 
uses  must  be  found  to  consume  two '  million  bales  more  than 
the  world  now  consumes,  if  the  old  standard  of  prices  are 
again  to  prevail. 


SILVER  IN  FRANCE. 

Free  coinage  orators  point  to  France  as  a  country  that  has 
done  wonders  with  silver.  But  when  silver  began  to  decline, 
and  its  coinage  ratio  to  go  below  the  gold  value,  France  closed 
her  mints  to  silver. 

A  recent  statement  of  the  Bank  of  France*  showed  specie 
holdings  as  follows: 

Gold .$430,000,000 

Silver 225,000,000 

Showing  $205,000,000  more  gold  than  silver. 
The  November  statement  of  the  United  States  Treasury 
showed  specie  holdings : 

Silver .$508,000,000 

Gold 126,000,000 

Showing  $382,000,000  more  silver  than  gold. 

So  it  appears  that  the  Bank  of  France  held  nearly  $2  in 
gold  to  every  dollar  in  silver,  while  the  United  States  Treas- 
ury held  only  $1  in  gold  to  every  $4  in  silver. 

The  Bank  of  France,  on  the  date  referred  to,  held  nearly 
double  as  much  gold  as  the  Bank  of  England ;  and  France 
is  as  firmly  a  gold  standard  country  as  England,  and  will 
always  remain  so.  And  it  was  wise  enough  to  stop  the 
coinage  of  silver  before  it  endangered  its  gold  supply. 
There  is  no  free  coinage  party  in  France,  nor,  indeed,  in 
any  other  great  civilized  country,  excepting  the  United  States. 

France  has  a  total  of  $825,000,000  of  gold  and  $492,000,000 
of  silver,  nearly  double  as  much  gold  as  silver,  while  the 
United  States  has  almost  equal  quantities  of  «ach. 

*See  1894  Report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint. 


38  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

FREE  COINAGE  IN  MEXICO. 

Our  next  door  neighbor,  Mexico,  has  produced  more  silver 
than  any  other  country  in  the  world.  The  mines  of  Chihua- 
hua alone  have  produced  more  than  five  hundred  million 
dollars.  Sonora,  Zacetecas  and  others  have  yielded  even 
more.  Coinage  is  free  in  Mexico.  And  yet  the  people  are 
poor  beyond  the  conception  of  the  common  American  laborer. 
All  labor  is  poorly  paid.  The  writer  spent  some  time  in 
Mexico  some  years  ago,  and  made  particular  inquiry  as  to 
wages  paid  in  agriculture  and  mining,  the  principal  indus- 
tries of  the  country,  and  found  them  varying  from  lo  to  36 
cents  per  day,  which  is  equivalent  to  5  to  18  cents  in  Ameri- 
can money. 

The  average  for  the  farm  laborer  did  not  exceed  20  cents 
per  day,  or  about  ten  cents  in  our  money.     The  people  live 
in  huts,  subsist  on  the  coarsest   food,  and  $2  in  American  ^ 
money  would  buy  the  average  outfit,  from  head  to  foot,  iiiJH] 
clothing.  ^^™' 

This  is  the  condition  in  a  free  coinage  country  that  has 
produced  more  than  four  thousand  million  dollars  of  silver, 
and  which  is  still  producing  silver  at  a  larger  ratio  per  capita 
than  any  other  country  in  the  world,  its  exports  of  the  metal 
in  1893  being  $5i,ooo,(X)0,  and  in  1892,  $49,000,000.  I  have 
not  the  statistics  for  1894.  Mexico  has  a  population  of 
12,000,000.  If  the  United  States  produced  silver  in  the 
same  proportion  or  the  same  rate  per  capita,  counting 
Mexico's  exports  only,  our  production  would  be  $300,000,000 
annually,  yet  who  would  say  that  the  people  of  that  country . 
are  better  off  than  we? 

Mexico  has  a  money  circulation  of  $4.71  per  capita. 

A  low  rate  per  capita  exists  in  nearly,  if  not  quite  all, 
silver  countries. 

The  people  who  advocate  free  coinage  in  the  United 
States  claim  that  low  prices  and  depressed  trade  conditions 
are  due  to  our  gold  standard,  and  insist  that  free  coinage 
would  bring  an  era  of  prosperity.  If  any  of  them  will  move 
across  the  border  into  Mexico  their  opinions  will  undergo 
a  decided  change.  A  move  merely  to  the  border  would 
have  a  wholesome  etfect. 

On  the  Mexican  side  there  is  small  progress  and  unfavor- 
able  conditions  generally,  while  within  the  United  States 


DOLIyARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  39 

line  there  is  activity,  growth  and  fair  prosperity.  All  the 
cities  and  villages  near  the  line  are  built  and  are  building  on 
the  American  side. 

Free  silver  coinage  can  make  no  country  prosperous;  on 
the  contrary,  the  mere  apprehension  of  it  is  quite  sufficient 
to  depress  business  and  arrest  enterprise  in  any  enlightened, 
prosperous  nation. 


TRAIN  LOADS  OF  SILVER. 

"Coin,"  with  a  stick  twenty-two  feet  long,  deftly  measures 
oflf  a  space  which  he  says  would  hold  all  the  gold  in  the 
world;  which,  it  may  be  said,  is  the  strongest  argument  he 
could  have  made  in  favor  of  gold  as  money. 

He  then  neatly  disposes  of  the  world's  silver  money  by 
saying  that  it  could  be  stored  in  a  Chicago  banking  room  and 
basement. 

His  idea  is  original,  but  he  does  not  put  it  in  a  way  that 
his  pupils  quite  grasp  the  enormity  of  the  pile.  It  would 
be  a  little  more  understandable  if  he  had  said  that  there  is 
enough  coined  silver  to  load  fairly  well  three  hundred  trains 
of  twenty  cars  each,  or  a  total  of  six  thousand  car  loads. 
He  might  have  explained  further  that  there  are  eight  hun- 
dred and  forty-four  car  loads  of  silver  held  for  monetary  pur- 
poses in  the  United  States;  and  also  explained  that  it  is 
impossible  to  keep  more  than  seventy-six  car  loads  of  that 
outside  of  the  Treasury,  of  which  probably  forty  or  forty- 
five  car  loads  are  stored  in  bank  vaults ;  showing  that  thirty 
or  forty  car  loads  are  as  much  as  the  people  are  willing  to 
carry  obout  in  their  pockets  and  secrete  in  their  homes. 

The  United  States  produced  in  the  single  year  1893,  ^^^ 
hundred  and  four  car  loads  of  silver,  almost  three  times  as 
much  as  the  people  will  carry  about  with  them,  and  more 
than  twice  as  much,  excepting  silver  change,  as  can  be  kept 
in  circulation  outside  the  Treasury. 

In  1893  the  world  produced  two  hundred  and  eighty- two 
car  loads  of  silver. ,  The  production  had  since  1874  increased 
in  every  year,  excepting  one ;  and  would  have  continued  to 
increase  more  rapidly  but  for  the  fact  that  it  began  to  decline 


40  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

in  price  because  it  became  so  abundant  it  could  not  be 
utilized  either  as  money,  or  in  the  arts. 

Owing  to  the  improved  methods  of  mining  within  very 
recent  years,  and  discoveries  of  new  mines  and  mining 
regions  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  it  is  perfectly  safe  to 
say  that  if  silver  had  remained  at  even  the  greatly  depre- 
ciated price  of  $i.oo  per  ounce,  not  less  than  $300,000,000, 
or  say  four  hundred  and  five  car  loads,  would  have  been 
mined  in  the  year  1895 — about  ten  times  as  much  as  the 
people  of  the  United  States  keep  in  active  use. 

At  this  rate  of  production,  22,500  car  loads  would  be 
turned  out  in  an  ordinary  lifetime.  All  the  locomotives  on 
the  largest  system  of  railroads  in  the  world  could  hardly 
haul  it. 

And  the  capacity  of  production  is  unlimited.  If  its  value 
could  be  raised  even  to  84  cents  an  ounce,  its  price  in  1893, 
its  output  would  now  far  exceed  the  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
two  car  loads  mined  in  that  year.  But  in  the  face  of  unlim- 
ited quantities  in  sight,  and  unlimited  resources  for  getting 
it  out  of  the  mines,  no  great  or  permanent  rise  in  its  price  is 
possible.  And  under  such  conditions  its  constant  fluctua- 
tion in  value  i*  inevitable.  If  the  price  is  so  low  that  little 
is  mined,  it  will  go  up ;  if  it  advances  enough  to  show  a 
profit,  enterprise  and  capital  will  at  once  increase  the  output, 
and  it  will  go  down.     The  output  is  limited  by  the  price  only. 

The  principle  is  the  same  as  in  pork  production.  If  hogs 
are  high,  farmers  everywhere  go  to  raising  them ;  and  soon 
glut  the  market  Then  the  price  of  pork  declines  till  hog 
raising  becomes  unprofitable  ;  and  the  farmer  tries  his  hand 
at  liomething  else. 

Does  anybody  want  a  currency  based  on  such  a  metal, 
a  currency  that  a  lot  of  miners  put  up  or  down  as  their 
interests  prompt?  To-day  you  have  Dollars,  to-moriow  you 
have — Wnat? 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 


GOLD  AND  SILVER  PRODUCTION. 

The  world's  total  stock  of  metallic  money  is  approximately 
$8,600,000,000,  the  proportion  of  gold  and  silver  being  not 
far  from  equal,  there  being  about  one- tenth  more  of  the  latter; 
say  $4,100,000,000  gold  and  $4,500,000,000  silver. 

This  is  the  total  money  accumulation  of  these  metals  from 
the  date  of  their  use  to  the  present  time. 

And  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  world's  production 
of  the  money  metals  within  the  last  thirty-five  years  has  been 
approximately  $7,300,000,000,  of  which  about  $3,950,000,000 
was  gold  and  $3,350,000,000  silver. 

Much  more  gold  than  silver  was  consumed  in  the  arts ; 
and  several  hundred  millions  more  silver  than  gold  was,  in 
that  period,  available  for  coinage  into  money. 

This  immense  increased  supply  of  the  precious  metals 
became  the  property  of  a  few  countries,  since  it  was  through 
the  agencies  of  the  progressive,  civilized  nations  only  that  it 
was  produced. 

The  gold  was  readily  absorbed,  owing  to  its  great  value  in 
sm^U  compass ;  but  these  enterprising  countries  suddenly 
accumulated  more  silver  than  they  could  use  as  money.  For 
instance,  the  silver  of  Mexico  is  mined  largely  by  Americans 
and  Englishmen,  and  its  large  output  goes  mainly  to  Eng- 
land and  the  United  States.  This  is  the  simple  reason  why 
certain  countries  limited  the  coinage  of  silver.  It  is  the 
reason  why  there  can  not  be  free  coinage  without  involving 
these  countries  in  hopeless  bankruptcy. 

In  former  periods  the  supply  of  the  metal  was  limited,  and 
the  people  had  no  more  than  they  could  handle  and  carry 
about,  but  the  largely  increased  stock  could  not  be  circulated. 

It  is  shown  elsewhere  that  only  about  80  cents  of  silver 
per  capita  can  be  actually  circulated  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  same  conditions  exist  in  all  other  countries  where  a 
lighter  and  more  convenient  currency  is  available. 

Its  '*  demonetization"  by  any  country  was  not  from  choice, 
but  from  necessity.  It  was  not  done  because  any  particular 
class  of  men  or  legislative  body  wanted  it  done,  but  because 
the  people,  in  effect,  said  to  the  law  makers : 

*'You  are  giving  us  too  much  of  this  kind  of  money ;  it  is 
too  bulky  and  heavy ;  ten  or  twenty  dollars  weights  the 
pocket ;  we  cannot  hide  it ;  when  we  have  money  we  do  not 


42  DOIvtARS,  OR  WHAT? 


"% 


want  everybody  to  know  it ;  you  can  coin  it  if  you  want  to, 
but  if  you  do  so,  you  must  keep  it ;  if  you  give  it  to  us  we 
will  give  it  back  to  you  in  exchange  for  more  convenient 
money.'* 

Any  great  change  in  the  laws  of  any  country  has  its  source 
in  the  people.  The  people  of  certain  nations  of  Europe 
decreed  by  their  acts  that  the  coinage  of  silver  must  stop. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  have  passed  a  similar 
decree.  And  in  this  decision  all,  the  silver  bugs  as  well  as 
the  gold  bugs,  have  joined.  The  free  silver  advocate  is  no 
more  willing  than  the  sound  money  man  to  accept  pocket- 
fuls  of  silver  in  payment  of  accounts.  If  he  gets  $50  of  the 
metal  he  strikes  a  bee  line  for  a  bank  and  converts  it  into 
paper  or  gold,  or  places  it  to  his  credit,  and  draws  out  paper 
or  gold,  as  he  wants  it.  He  has  directly  aided  in  its  "  de- 
monetization," and  in  depressing  its  commercial  value.  Al- 
though he  cries  ''free  silver,"  he  carries  bills  or  gold  in  his 
pockets,  and  leaves  the  silver  for  the  government  to  hoard  in 
idleness. 

And  the  United  States  Treasury's  hoard  of  silver  is  abso- 
lutely idle  and  useless.  The  1894  report  of  the  Bureau  of 
the  Mint  places  the  sum  at  $514,000,000.  It  is  almost  worth- 
less as  an  asset,  because  there  is  no  possible  way  to  use  it. 
Pensioners,  contractors,  and  employes  of  the  government, 
whether  free  silver  advocates  or  otherwise,  refuse  to  accept 
it  in  payment  for  services  and  bills. 

For  the  same  reason  it  is  worth  nothing  as  a  support  to 
the  credit  of  the  government.  On  the  contrary,  it  is,  for 
good  reasons,  a  peril  and  a  menace. 

Any  other  government  would  melt  much  of  it  down  and 
sell  it ;  but  the  Western  mine  owners  hold  the  balance  of 
power  at  Washington,  and  they  do  not  want  it  put  on  the 
market  in  competition  with  their  product. 

If  gold  could  be  obtained  for  a  good  part  of  it,  the  whole 
country  would  soon  have  great  cause  to  rejoice.  Such  a  deal 
would  be  a  great  bargain  and  a  great  blessing.  Our  fiat 
money  would  have  substantial  support,  and.  our  national 
finances  could  be  handled  with  ease  and  confidence. 

Furthermore,  the  stability  it  would  give  would  soon  largely 
increase  our  supply  of  good  money,  and  our  rate  per  capita. 

The  facts  here  stated  and  the  statistics  given  make  plain 
the  causes  of  the  decline  in  the  prices  of  silver,  and  of  the 
largely  increased  ratio  of  value  between  gold  and  silver* 


DOLI.ARS,  OR  WHAT?  43 


FLUCTUATIONS  IN  THE  SILVER  DOLLAR. 

The  following  table  shows,  in  the  years  named,  the  fluctu- 
ation in  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  silver  dollar. 

YEARS.  HIGHEST.  I^OWEST. 

1876 99  cents 79  cents 

1878 93  cents 83  cents 

1879 91  cents 82  cents 

1886 79  cents 71  cents 

1890 92  cents 74  cents 

1892 74  cents 64  cents 

1893 65  cents 50  cents 

Only  years  are  given  in  which  the  change  was  most 
striking.  Fluctuations,  however,  have  been  marked  each 
year  since  the  large  overproduction  of  silver  began  to  glut 
the  market. 

If  the  country  had  been  on  a  silver  basis  in  the  year  1876, 
for  instance,  a  dollar  of  any  kind  of  money  would  have  been 
worth  in  July,  1876,  79  cents,  and  in  December,  99  cents. 
In  the  following  year  it  would  have  been  worth  about  90 
cents,  and  down  again  in  1878  to  83  cents ;  up  again  in  1879 
to  81  cents,  and  so  on  through  each  year  down  to  the  present 
time.  In  1893  it  dropped  from  65  cents  to  about  50  cents,  a 
change  in  value  of  23  per  cent,  in  a  single  year. 

The  capacity  of  production  being  now  practically  unlimit- 
ed, its  fluctuation  will  inevitably  continue. 

Great  hardship  and  uncertainty  would  result  if  wages, 
salaries,  the  products  of  labor,  contracts-  and  credits  were 
based  on  such  money. 

And  the  poor  man,  who  earns  his  living  by  the  sweat  of 
brow,  would  suffer  most.  While  at  times  the  dollar  of  95 
or  99  cents  might  keep  him  in  comfort,  his  wife  and  little 
ones  would  be  sorely  pinched  when  the  dollar  dropped  to  65 
or  to  50  cents.  His  wages  would  not  go  up  and  down  with 
the  dollar,  but  his  food  and  clothing  would  do  so. 

And  furthermore,  the  uncertainty  of  values  would  so  dis- 
turb the  business  of  his  employer  that  work  would  be  pre- 
carious. His  employment  and  subsistence  would  fluctuate 
with  the  output  of  the  silver  mine.  He  would  be  constantly 
on  the  ragged  edge,  and  at  the  mercy  of  adventurous  mine 
operators  and  speculators. 

The  wage  earner,  above  all  other  men,  is  vitally  concerned 
in  a  fixed,  unchanging  standard  of  money.     His  living  is  too 


44  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

slender  to  admit  of  the  risk  of  change  and  speculation.  H 
cannot  afford  to  base  it  on  the  chance  of  any  industry,  es 
pecially  not  that  of  silver  mining. 

The  silver  dollar  appears  to  be  a  mighty  good  dollar  now 
sinoe  it  buys  anything  that  can  be  bought  with  any  other 
kind  of  a  dollar ;  but  this  is  simply  because  it  is  braced  up 
by,  and  made  interchangeable  with,  the  gold  dollar. 

But  if  it  stood  alone,  without  a  law  or  a  policy  that  make 
it  exchangeable  for  lOO  cents  in  gold,  its  purchasing  valu 
would  be  as  uncertain  as  the  wind  and  weather. 

It  cannot  be  that  any  man  who  understands  this  matte 
favors  free  coinage  of  silver,  which  means  a  silver  basis  an 
unsteady  money. 


i 


On  a  silver  money  basts  all  the  market  values  in  the 
United  States  would  change  with  the  7'ising  and  setting 
of  the  sun. 


STANDARD  OF  GRAIN  MEASURE. 

A  bushel  is  the  standard  measure  of  grain.  Contracts  of 
sale  and  purchase  are  made  on  this  basis.  And  it  is  a  stable 
measure,  because  it  does  not  change. 

But  suppose  it  were  a  fluctuating  measure,  a  little  more 
to-day,  a  little  less  to-morrow — what  confusion  would  result ! 
When  the  farmer  sold  his  wheat  he  would  be  obliged  to  do  a 
complicated  sum  in  mathematics  to  find  out  how  much  he 
got  for  it. 

Yet  there  would  be  less  confusion  in  a  changing  grain 
measure  than  in  a  changing  money  measure,  because  the 
effect  of  the  latter  would  be  more  general. 

And  a  silver  standard  would  be  such  a  money  measure  be- 
cause silver  is  a  commodity  of  uncertain  market  value. 

With  a  silver  basis,  or  measure  of  money,  the  farmer  would 
be  at  as  great  loss  to  know  what  he  got  for  his  wheat,  barley, 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  45 

corn,  oats  and  rye  as  if  the  bushel  basis  or  measure  of  grain 
changed  every  day. 

Gold  is  now  the  unchanging  measure  of  money  just  as  the 
bushel  is  the  unchanging  measure  of  corn. 

Can  any  practical  man  desire  to  change  either  ? 


RATIO  BETWEEN  GOLD  AND  SILVER. 

''Coin"  has  a  good  deal  to  say  about  the  commercial  ratio 
of  silver  to  gold.  He  goes  back  a  century  or  two  and  shows 
that  this  ratio  was  fairly  steady  through  the  period  he  goes 
over.  This  is  true,  and  there  were  a  number  of  good  rea- 
sons for  it,  the  chief  being  that  the  production  of  gold  and 
silver  were  happily  in  about  the  proportions  needed. 

But  it  suits  his  purpose  not  to  go  further  back  than  1687. 
Prior  to  1680,  covering  the  period  from  1493,  there  had  been 
a  change  of  50  per  cent,  in  the  ratio. 

The  "appreciation"  of  gold  and  the  depreciation  of  silver 
through  this  period  is  a  very  interesting  circumstance  in  con- 
nection with  the  silver  doctrine. 

And  the  cause  of  the  decline  in  silver  was  the  same  as 
now,  namely,  a  largely  increased  production,  though  it 
worked  more  slowly  for  two  reasons.  First,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  in  former  times  there  was  a  scarcity  of  both  gold 
and  silver,  and  it  was  not  difficult  to  absorb  as  money  all 
that  could  be  had  of  either ;  secondly,  all  movements  were 
slow  a  few  hundred  years  ago ;  what  is  now  accomplished 
within  two  or  three  years  then  required  a  century.  The  in- 
creased production  of  silver  was  slow,  and  though  the  quan- 
tity was  comparatively  small,  the  per  cent,  compared  with 
production  in  former  years  was  great. 

The  commercial  ratio  of  silver  to  gold  in  the  15th  century 
was  a  fraction  over  10  to  i.  In  the  17th  century  it  was  a 
fraction  over  15  to  i.     This  was  in  1680. 

"Coin,"  conveniently,  begins  his  table  in  1687,  and  com- 
pletely ignores  the  most  remarkable  change  that  ever  oc- 
curred between  the  metals,  the  most  remarkable  owing  to  the 
general  scarcity  of  money  of  all  kinds,  and  particularly  of  the 
precious  metals.  And  the  change  is  clearly  directly  trace- 
able to  the  ratio  of  productioji  between  the  metals, 


46  DOIvLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

On  pages  174  and  175  of  the  report  of  the  Bureau  of  the 
Mint,  1894,  may  be  found  a  table  showing  the  production  of 
both  in  the  15th,  i6th  and  17th  centuries.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  15th  century  the  per  centage  of  silver  produced  was 
very  small,  being  from  1493  to  1520  only  $54,703,000,  while 
the  production  of  gold  in  the  same  period  was  $107,931,000. 
The  ratio  at  that  time  was  not  far  from  10  to  i.  But  the 
output  of  silver  soon  began  to  largely  increase,  and  after 
1544  the  production  of  gold  began  to  fall  off.  The  following 
table  from  page  175  of  the  report  shows  the  relative  produc- 
tion in  value  of  the  metals  during  the  period  referred  to. 

Per  Cent,  of  Production. 
Year,  A.  D.  Gold.  Silver. 

1493-1520 66 33 

1521-1544 55 44 

1545-1560 30 69 

1561-1580 26 73 

1591-1600 22 78 

1601-1620 24 75 

1621-1640 25 74 

i64i-i66o 27 72 

1661-1680 30 69 


In    1680   the   ratio   of   values   stood   at   something   ovj 
15  to  I. 


The  above  table  explains  the  cause  of  the  decline  in  silve? 
in  that  period,  and  no  argument  is  needed. 

Its  production  largely  increased,  and  that  of  gold  largely 
declined.  There  was  no  "demonetization,"  or  "unfriendly" 
silver  legislation  in  that  day.  It  could  have  been  affected 
only  by  the  natural  laws  of  supply  and  demand.  Considering 
the  conditions  then  prevailing  the  decline  was  even  more  re- 
markable than  the  decline  of  50  per  cent,  in  the  value  of 
silver  since  1873.  In  the  latter  period  its  output  became  so  ^ 
great  that,  owing  to  its  bulk  and  weight,  the  currency  systems 
of  the  world  could  not  absorb  it. 

The  table  referred  to  extends  down  to  the  present  time, 
and,  if  considered  with  reference  to  general  conditions  and 
influences  at  different  periods,  is  an  interesting  study.  It 
gives  convincing  proof  that  a  double  standard  of  money  value 
has  at  all  times  been  uncertain.  No  proof  ought  to  be  needed 
that  such  a  standard,  on  any  basis,  is  now  impossible,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  there  is  now  a  real  surplus  of  silver;  and 
anything  of  which  there  is  a  surf  Ins  is  of  unstable  value  and 
-purely  speculative^  subject  to  sudden  and  violent  fluctuations . 
^o  such  thing  can  furuish  a  safe  .fittaiicial  corner  st:one. 


DOI^IvARS,  OR  WHAT?  47 

No  country  can  prosper  on  a  money  basis  bobbing  up  and 
down.  There  could  be  no  certain  profit  in  business,  nor  any 
steady  or  satisfactory  remuneration  for  labor,  with  dollars 
worth  60  cents  to-day,  and  55  or  65  cents  to-morrow. 

A  silver  standard  in  America  would  make  it  necessary  for 
a  man  each  day  to  wait  the  silver  quotations  from  the  London 
market,  to  ascertain  how  much  money  he  had,  how  much  his 
neighbor  owed  him,  or  how  much  he  owed  his  neighbor.  As 
to  wages,  or  the  cost  of  living  a  month  or  year  in  the  future, 
he  could  form  small  estimate.  No  equitable  scale  of  wages 
could  be  agreed  on  between  employer  and  employe.  The 
money  would  be  liable  to  go  down  in  purchasing  value  till  the 
workman  could  not  live  on  his  pay ;  or  it  might  go  up  till  it 
would  bankrupt  the  employer.  There  could  be  no  confidence 
between  the  men  who  give  work  and  those  who  work. 
Frequent  adjustments  would  be  a  necessity.  Strikes -and 
grievances  would  multiply  ;  uncertainty  in  pay  and  profit,  and 
dissatisfaction  would  become  general. 

If  a  man  insured  his  life  for  the  benefit  of  his  family,  he 
could  make  no  estimate  of  what  they  would  really  get  at  his 
death.  The  sum  might  be  more  than  he  counted,  or  it  might 
be  a  great  deal  less. 

If  he  sold  his  house,  or  his  farm,  for  a  given  sum,  the  note 
he  took  in  payment  would  be  in  the  nature  of  a  lottery  ticket; 
the  money  might  go  up,  and  the  final  payment  be  more  than 
he  expected,  or  it  might  go  down  and  be  less  than  he  ex- 
pected. If  he  were  in  debt  the  rise  might  enable  him  to 
square  accounts  with  ease ;  or  the  decline  might  embarrass  or 
cripple  him.     He  might  draw  a  prize  or  a  blank. 

It  is  doubtless  unfortunate  for  mankind  that  silver  has  be- 
come so  abundant  that  it  is  unsteady  in  value,  and  conse- 
quently uncertain  and  unsafe  as  a  basis  of  money.  It  is  also 
unfortunate  for  the  farmer  that  overproduction  and  competi- 
tion have  so  greatly  reduced  the  price  of  wheat;  but  these 
facts  exist,  and  it  is  more  sensible  to  look  them  squarely  in 
the  face,  than  to  theorize,  worry,  and  upset  things  generally, 
in  a  vain  effort  to  change  them. 

It  may  be  unfortunate  that  gold  is  now  the  only  money 
metal  that  has  a  safely  steady  value  on  which  present  or 
future  obligations  can  with  equal  safety  be  based,  but  such  is 
the  case ;  and  it  does  no  good  to  fret  and  rail  about  it.  Natural 
and  irresistible  agencies,  controlled  by  no  class  of  men, 
brought  about  this  condition;    and,  if   the   condition   ever 


48  DOIvI/ARS,  OR  WHAT? 

changes,   natural,   and    not  unnatural   agencies  must   bring 
the  change.     It   can    not   be    done   by  legislative  edicts 
Washington. 


EXPORTS  OF  SILVER. 

The  production  of  silver  in  this  country  continues  to  add 
to  our  money  circulation  an  amount  equal  to  the  marketable 
value  of  all  the  metal  mined,  less  the  amount  used  in 
domestic  arts.  The  surplus  is  exported,  and  either  brings  an 
equal  amount  of  gold  into  the  country  or  keeps  an  equal 
amount  of  gold  from  going  out.  In  1894  we  exported  and 
sold  abroad  $39,555,879  of  domestic  silver.  This  silver  either 
added  or  saved  to  our  currency  an  equal  amount  of  money. 
If  it  had  been  coined  into  money  and  kept  at  home,  we  should 
have  been  obliged  to  send  abroad  an  equal  amount  of  gold, 
unless  we  had  increased  our  indebtedness  to  foreign  lenders. 
The  United  States  does  not  destroy  silver  when  it  quits  coining 
the  metal.  It  is  sold,  and  our  circulation  increased  that  much. 
The  increase  creates  no  apprehension  and  is  substantial.  It  is 
gold,  and  each  dollar  has  an  intrinsic  value  of  100  cents.  If 
the  silver  were  coined  into  dollars  they  would  add  more  to  the 
volume  of  circulation,  but  would  possess  an  intrinsic  value 
no  greater  than  the  export  value  of  the  metal ;  and  its  coinage 
would  drive  out  more  gold  than  the  gain  in  silver  circulation. 


OBSTACLES  IN  THE  WAY  OF  FREE  SILVER. 

If  the  currency  of  the  United  States  were  not  on  a  gold 
basis,  and  there  were  no  gold  in  circulation,  the  free  coinage 
of  silver  could  be  accomplished  without  sudden  shock  and 
disaster,  because  no  large  part  of  the  money  would  be  with- 
drawn from  circulation,  suddenly  contracting  the  currency; 
and  also  because  there  would  be  no  sudden  and  violent  un- 
settling of  credits  and  values,  and  sudden  withdrawals  of 
foreign  capital.     Under  a  well  arranged  note  system,  based 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  49 

on  silver,  there  would  be  a  gradual  increase  in  the  volume  of 
money,  and  possibly  a  general  rise  in  values;  though  so  long 
as  the  paper  were  within  safe  limits  higher  prices  would  re- 
sult rather  than  from  the  cheapening  of  silver,  the  basis  of 
the  money,  from  increased  over-supply,  than  from  the  actual 
volume  of  currency  put  out.  Under  such  circumtances  the 
free  silver  advocates  could  obtain  their  desire — an  immediate 
increase  in  the  money  supply. 

There  are  good  grounds,  however,  for  the  belief  that  the 
United  States  would,  under  any  system  on  a  silver  basis,  be 
under  serious  disadvantages  as  a  progressive  nation,  and 
that  owing  to  these  disadvantages  its  enterprises  would 
languish  ;  but  if  we  were  not  on  a  gold  basis,  it  could  by  free 
coinage  doubtless  make  money,  such  as  it  would  be,  abund- 
ant, without  the  danger  of  serious  disturbance  for  the  time 
being,  its  fluctuation  in  value  not  considered.  (This  assump- 
tion, however,  it  may  be  said,  is  theoretical.) 

This  is  what  the  free  silver  people  desire  to  accomplish. 
But  they  overlook  the  fact  that  $626,000,000  of  our  money 
is  gold,  and  that  this  part  of  it  would  immediately  disappear, 
and  by  sudden  contraction,  disastrously  defeat  their  purpose. 
They  ignore  our  foreign  indebtedness  of  probably  about 
$2,000,000,000,  a  large  part  of  which  would  have  to  be 
settled,  and  soon  take  all  the  available  gold,  and  much  silver 
besides. 

These  are  some  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  free  coin- 
age. It  would  seem  that  they  are  simple  and  clear  enough 
for  reasoning  men  to  see  them.  They  are  so  appalling  that 
if  we  should  ignore  them  we  should  become  a  nation  of 
bankrupts  and  the  wonder  of  the  world. 


Free  coinage  of  silver  means  a  silver  basis  ^  zuith  silver  as 
the    only    metallic    money ^    and   a    loss  to    the    currency    of 
$626^000,000  gold. 


50  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  > 

DO  WE  WANT  BIMETALLISM? 

There  was   in   the   United  States  on  November 
elsewhere    stated,    approximately  $625,000,000    silver   and 
$626,000,000  gold. 

Shall  we  use  both  the  silver  and  the  gold,  or  shall  we  use 
only  one,  and  get  rid  of  $626,000,000  of  the  other  money? 

To  use  both  is  bimetallism  ;  to  use  one  is  monometallism. 
Are  we  bimetallists,  or  are  we  monometallists? 

England  is  practically  a  monometallic  country,  since  it 
uses  but  $112,000,000  of  silver,  all  told,  and  that  as  a  lim- 
ited legal  tender.  China,  Japan,  Mexico  and  most  South 
American  countries  are  also  monometallic  countries,  since 
they  use  only  silver.  France  and  Germany  are  bimetallic 
countries,  both  using  gold  and  silver;  the  latter  in  larger 
quantities  than  England,  and  a  large  per  cent,  of  it  as  a  full 
legal  tender. 

France,  next  to  the  United  States,  uses  more  legal  tender 
silver  than  any  other  bimetallic  country,  the  amount  being 
$434,000,000. 

Germany  uses  $215,000,000,  all  told,  only  $105,000,000 
being  legal  tender. 

The  United  States  has  $549,000,000  full  legal  tender  silver, 
$626,000,000  legal  tender  gold,  and  $76,000,000  silver  half 
dollars,  quarters  and  dimes,  which  are  limited  legal  tender. 
Both  kinds  of  money,  under  our  present  laws  and  policy,  are 
good,  and  both  (excepting  the  fractional  coin)  a  full  legal 
tender  for  the  payment  of  debts  to  individuals  or  of  dues  to 
the  government. 

Are  we  satisfied  to  keep  and  use  them  both  in  safe  quan- 
tities or  are  we  partial  and  obstinate,  and  shall  we  determine 
to  use  but  one  and  drive  the  other  out  of  circulation  and  out 
of  the  country? 

I  believe  these  are  needless  questions. 

It  would  be  hard  to  see  what  the  country  could  gain  and 
easy  to  see  what  it  would  lose  by  such  a  course.  The 
masses  of  the  people  of  the  South  and  North — ninety-nine 
in  every  hundred — are  straight  out  bimetallists.  The  writer 
is  a  bimetallist.  He  believes  with  the  ninety-nine  in  every 
hundred  Southern  and  Northern  men,  in  the  use  of  both 
gold  and  silver,  and  all  other  good  money  we  can  get;  but 
he  does  not  believe  in  using  more  silver  than  can  be  handled 


DOIvLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  51 

with  convenience  to  the  people,  and  safety  to  the  Govern- 
ment. He  believes  also  that  the  coinage  of  silver  should  be 
regnlated  by  its  absorption  as  a  circulating  medium — by  the 
amount  the  people  are  willing  to  take  and  use,  and  keep  in 
circulation — its  idle  accumulation  in  large  sums  in  the 
treasury  vaults  being  useless  and  dangerous  at  the  present 
ratio.  He  does  not,  however,  believe  in  schemes  to  force 
the  increased  and  inconvenient  use  of  silver  by  the  with- 
drawal from  circulation  of  small  denominations  of  paper 
money. 

Now,  how  are  we  to  continue  bimetallism?  The  silver 
dollar  circulates  in  the  same  channels  as  the  gold  dollar,  of 
equal  purchasing  and  debt-paying  value. 

But  the  gold  dollar  has  an  intrinsic  and  marketable  value 
nearly  double  the  silver  dollar.  It  can  be  melted  down  and 
sold  at  the  rate  of  about  $20  per  ounce,  or  for  one  hundred 
cents,  in  any  country  in  the  world,  but  if  the  silver  dollar 
be  melted  down  it  can  be  sold  for  only  about  sixty-two  cents 
an  ounce  (the  present  market  price),  or  something  over 
FIFTY  cents.  Then  why  does  the  gold  dollar  circulate  with 
the  silver  dollar?  Why  do  not  the  people  melt  down  their 
gold  dollars  and  sell  them,  and  keep  the  dollars  with  less 
marketable  value  for  use  in  paying  obligations  and  making 
purchases? 

Is  it  because  the  United  States  has  put  its  dollar  stamp  on 
the  silver  piece  ? 

No.  That  stamp,  of  itself,  does  not  add  the  fraction  of  a 
cent  to  the  value  of  the  silver  piece. 

It  is  because  the  affirmed  policy  of  the  United  States 
makes  its  silver  dollar  interchangeable  with  its  gold  dollar; 
and  because  it  undertakes  to  keep  not  less  than  $100,000»000 
in  gold  on  hand,  so  that  it  may  have  an  abundance  of  the 
dollars  of  one  hundred  cents  marketable  value  to  maintain 
the  interchangeable  quality  of  its  cheaper,  fluctuating  silver 
money,  and  its  otherwise  worthless  paper  money.  Thus  we 
have  bimetallism  as  the  word  is  generally  understood. 

But  it  ought  not  to  be  hard  to  see  that  this  $100,000,000 
gold  reserve  is  already  subject  to  considerable  strain.  It 
supports  all  the  silver,  either  in  the  form  of  coined  silver  or 
paper  silver  certificates,  and  all  other  forms  of  paper,  making 
a  total  of  about  eleven  hundred  million  dallars  directly- 
dependent  ou  ihsX  xesprye  for  its  full /ace  valjue^ 


52  DOIylyARS,  OR  WHAT? 

Now,  if  under  our  present  financial  system  we  coin  any 
more  silver  we  increase  the  strain  on  the  gold  reserve^  which 
alone  makes  all  our  money  o^^^.  it  is  comparatively  a  small 
sum,  say  one-eleventh  of  the  money  it  supports  and  gives 
value  to.  It  could  not  have  been  kept  on  hand  a  week  at 
any  time  since  it  was  established  but  for  the  confidence  the 
world  has  in  the  promises  and  integrity  of  the  Government. 
One-eleventh  of  the  fiat  money  of  the  country  taken  to  the 
Treasury  window  would  have  taken  it  all  out.  But  trusting 
the  Government's  integrity  of  purpcse,  and  its  ability  to 
maintain  that  gold  reserve,  none  of  it  was  ever  drawn  upon, 
except  for  purely  cojmnercial  purposes,  till  the  Sherman  law 
was  passed  in  1890  providing  for  increased  coinage  of  silver 
at  the  rate  of  $54,000,000  per  annum,  thus  increasing  by 
that  amount  annually  the  strain  on  that  gold  reserve. 
Serious  financial  disturbances  followed.  The  gold  reserve 
declined  rapidly.  The  danger  became  so  great  and  so  immi- 
nent that  the  Sherman  law  was  repealed  in  1893,  though 
with  great  difficulty,  owing  chiefly  to  the  obstructive  meas- 
ures of  Senators  from  the  mining  districts  of  the  West,  who 
wanted  to  put  the  country  on  a  silver  basis.  Full  confidence 
has  not  yet  returned.  It  was  retarded  by  the  appearance  of 
a  strong  and  determined  free  coinage  element  in  the  Fifty-; 
third  Congress. 

Now,  with   these  simple    facts    before  him,    stated   in  a 
straightforward  way,  the  writer  is  sure  that  any  candid  nian^. 
(though  he  may  have  advocated   free  coinage)  must  admiti 
that  the  United  States  cannot  coin  any  considerable  quantity" 
more  silver  without  wiping  out  that  gold  reserve. 

Admitting  this,  we  get  back  to  the  question :  Do  we  wantJ 
bimetallism  ?  Do  we  want  to  use  both  gold  and  silver  asl 
now,  and  have  about  $24*  per  capita  good,  full  value  money, 
or  are  we  willing  to  drive  out  the  gold  for  the  sake  of  coining 
the  product  of  the  Western  mines,  and  have,  for  a  time  at 
least,  only  about  $16  poor  money  per  capita,  worth  really 
only  about  $8  full  value  per  capita  ?  We  would  increase  the 
$8  per  capita  as  the  Western  mines  turned  out  silver  and  as 
other  countries  might  sell  us  their  accumulation  of  the  un- 
wieldy metal.  But  we  should  be  so  hopelessly  bankrupted 
that  those  of  us  now  living  would  not  feel  much  concern  as 
to  the  future  supply  of  the  uncertain  and  cumbersome  money. 

That   supply    would    probably    eventually   be    abundant, 

*  Xhe  1894  government  reports  estimate  about  $25  per  capita, 


DOIvLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  53 

though  depreciating  and  fluctuating,  and  therefore  constantly 
unsettling  values  and  trade.  But  in  the  meantime,  with 
money  on  the  basis  of  $8,  present  purchase  value,  per  capita, 
what  would  become  of  the  people  and  industries  of  the  United 
States — a  people  accustomed  to  $24  per  capita,  and  enjoying 
credits  to  the  extent  of  probably  $15,000,000,000  or  $20,000,- 
000,000*  based  directly  on  that  $24  per  capita  and  on  that 
$100,000,000  gold  reserve  ? 

Is  there  a  man  in  America  whose  imagination  would  not 
stagger  under  an  attempt  to  conceive  the  consequences  of 
such  a  calamity? 

While  Mexico  and  the  Western  silver  mines  rehabilitated 
our  currency  with  a  metal  which  the  people  now  absolutely 
refuse  to  accept  in  any  quantity,  and  of  which  only  about 
fifty-six  million  full  legal  tender  dollars  can  possibly  be  cir- 
culated (a  great  part  of  that  lying  idly  in  the  bank  vaults), 
what  would  become  of  the  idle,  penniless  men,  women  and 
children  of  the  United  States,  with  creditors  like  wolves 
swarming  about  them  ? 

Is  there  any  man  who  can  read  the  plain,  truthful  state- 
ments here  made  and  not  understand  them  ?  And  if  he 
understands  them,  is  he  a  bimetallist,  or  is  he  for  free  coin- 
age and  silver  monometallism? 

Of  what  avail  are  such  sophistries,  catching  cartoons,  in- 
genious illustrations,  questionings  and  deceptive  reasonings 
as  are  contained  in  ''  Coin's  Financial  School "  when  set 
against  the  serious  facts  and  simple,  naked  truths  of  the  real 
situation  ?  It  is  little  less  than  criminal  to  deal  in  sophistries 
and  artful  deceptions  when  such  momentous  interests  are  at 
stake. 

We  want  bimetallism,  and  not  silver  monometallism. 


FREE  COINAGE  NOT  FREE  DISTRIBUTIOK. 

Suppose   it  be  admitted  that  the  free   coinage  of  silver 
would  be  a  blessing,  and  would  at  once  increase  the  volume 
of  money  in  the  country  as  a  whole — in  what  way  would  it 
increase  the  supply  in  individual  pockets? 
•  Including  indivi(ivial  indebtedness  credits  are  estiinated  at  |4o,ocx),ooo,ooo. 


54  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

How  would  it  even  increase  the  supply  in  non-silver  pro- 
ducing sections? 

Free  silver  does  not  mean  that  the  government  would  coin 
and  send  it  about  the  country  on  pack  horses  and  in  wagons 
inviting  every  man  to  help  himself.  There  will  be  no  "  forty 
acres  and  a  mule  "  distribution,  unless  it  be  to  the  Western 
miners,  at  the  end  of  this  free  silver  fight,  no  matter  how  it 
may  terminate. 

The  metal  is  produced  in  the  mining  sections  of  the  West. 
The  people  who  mine  it  would  have  the  privilege  of  sending 
it  to  the  government  mints  and  getting  it  coined  into  money. 
When  coined  it  would  belong  to  them. 

They  would  not  scatter  it  around  among  their  friends  in 
Georgia,  South  Carolina  and  Illinois.  They  would  take  it 
back  to  Montana  and  Colorado. 

If  vast  quantities  of  silver  were  mined  the  people  out  West 
might  accumulate  vast  quantities  of  money.  The  "  silver 
bugs  "  of  that  section  might  become  as  rich  and  obnoxious 
as  the  *' gold  bugs"  of  the  East.  Denver  might  become  a 
great  money  center,  but  what  advantage  would  that  be 
the  people  of  Alabama  or  Michigan  ? 

There  is  already  idle  money  by  the  hundreds  of  millions 
in  some  sections  of  the  country,  but  the  people  of  other  sec- 
tions cannot  get  it  because  they  buy  about  as  much  as  they 
sell,  and  have  no  favorable  balance  of  trade  to  bring  it  to 
them. 

If  the  silver  barons  of  the  west  were  multiplied  by  the 
score,  and  if  all  the  followers  of  the  mining  camps  were  to 
grow  rich  and  great,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  the  farmers  of 
Mississippi  or  Ohio  would  be  benefited  any  more  than  they 
are  now  benefited  by  the  vast  accumulations  of  money  stored 
in  the  vaults  of  Eastern  banks. 

If  every  tenth  man  in  Colorado  were  made  a  millionaire, 
and  the  fortunes  of  all  were  in  cash,  that  accumulation  of 
money  could  no  more  put  up  prices  than  do  the  present 
hoards  in  the  East. 

The  truth  is  that  the  supply  of  money  has  little  to  do  with 
prices,  which  are  based  on  the  cost  of  production,  but  regu- 
lated by  supply  and  demand.  They  are  affected  also  by  the 
state  of  credits. 

Prosperity,  which  stimulates  prices,  depends  upon  safe 
(pj.edits  more  than  upon  the  volume  of  money. 


d 


DOLtAk^,  Ok  WUAf>  $s 

Money  may  be  abundant,  and  prosperity  wholly  lacking ; 
but  credit  cannot  be  abundant  without  prosperity. 

Confidence,  which  is  the  basis  of  credit,  increases  the  use 
and  active  supply  of  money.  It  is  also  a  great  distributor  of 
money,  a  great  equalizer  of  its  circulation. 

The  advocates  of  inflation,  whether  by  free  coinage  of  sil- 
ver, or  other  methods,  destroy  confidence  and  thus  destroy 
the  only  rational  means  of  securing  what  they  really  want, 
an  active  increase  of  the  volume  of  money  in  the  channels 
of  trade. 

They  get  hold  of  the  wrong  horn  of  the  dilemma.  They 
propose  an  artificial  and  consequently  unsafe  increase  in  the 
money  supply,  believing  that  they  can  thus  increase  the  cir- 
culation and  put  up  prices. 

The  plan  inevitably  works  the  wrong  way.  Too  many 
distrust  the  scheme. 

The  money  is  locked  up,  nobody  wants  to  invest,  or  to  buy 
beyond  actual  needs,  and  prices  go  down  instead  of  up. 

Then  the  stump  orator  comes  upon  the  scene,  abuses  the 
*'gold  bugs,"  and  lays  the  consequences  of  this  folly  at  the 
door  of  the  *' money  power." 


J^ree  silver  would  reduce  by  half  the  value  of  all  -pensions , 
wages^  life  insurance  payments^  bank  deposits^  and  other  evi- 
dences of  credit. 


GOLD  STANDARD  AND  PROSPERITY. 

Free  silver  orators  and  writers  claim  that  we  have  tried 
the  gold  standard  since  1878,  and  that  things  have  gradually 
grown  worse,  and  that  it  is  now  time  to  try  something  else, 
meaning  free  silver.  This  statement  is  untrue  in  every  par- 
ticular. The  period  from  1878  to  1890  was  in  all  respects 
the  most  prosperous  in  the  history  of  the  country.  The  in- 
crease in  population,  the  industrial  growth,  the  influx  of  for- 


DOUvARS,  OR  WHAT?' 

eign  capital  and  the  expansion  of  enterprise  was  not  merely 
extraordinary,  it  was  marvelous.  It  was  a  development 
never  equaled,  or  even  approached,  in  any  country  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  In  1878  the  West  was  practically  un- 
settled and  undeveloped.  Since  then  its  broad  acres  have 
been  brought  under  cultivation,  and  its  hamlets  have  become 
populous  and  prosperous  cities.  In  1878  the  South  practic- 
ally had  neither  capital  nor  manufacturing  industries.  Its 
iron  and  coal  were  almost  untouched ;  its  railroads  were 
lacking  in  traffic,  in  bad  repair,  without  substantial  equip- 
ment or  organization,  and  for  eighteen  years  there  had  been 
little  new  construction.  In  those  twelve  years  three  and  a 
half  times  as  many  cotton  mills  were  built  in  the  South  as 
were  built  during  the  previous  one  hundred  years.  The  in- 
crease of  spindles  was  more  than  350  per  cent.  More  capi- 
tal was  invested  in  mining  and  iron  production,  ten  times 
over,  than  in  the  previous  history  of  the  country  since  its 
settlement.  The  same  activity  and  energy  prevailed  in  air 
lines  of  industry.  The  development  of  the  West  and  North- 
west was  not  less  wonderful.  Denver,  Kansas  City,  St.  Paul, 
Minneapolis,  Detroit  and  Milwaukee  grew  from  townships  to 
big  cities ;  the  population  of  Chicago  grew  from  a  few  hun- 
dred thousand  to  a  million  inhabitants.  The  North  also  en| 
joyed  unequaled  prosperity.  In  that  period  our  stock  of  gold 
increased  from  $213,000,000  to  $690,000,000,  a  net  increase  of 
$477,000,000;  our  stock  of  silver  increased  from  $87,000,000 
to  $440,000,000,  a  net  increase  of  $353,000,000.  Deposits  in 
State  and  National  banks  increased  from  $800,000,000  to 
$2,200,000,000,  showing  in  twelve  years  the  unprecedented 
increase  of  nearly  300  per  cent,  in  the  savings  and  accumu- 
lations of  the  people.  And  in  the  same  period  the  bonded 
debt  of  the  United  States,  about  which  the  free  silver  men 
make  so  much  noise,  was  reduced  from  nearly  $1,800,000,000 
to  about  $600,000,000,  a  great  reduction  of  two-thirds  or  say, 
about  $1,200,000,000  of  the  interest  bearing  debt  of  the 
country.  The  credit  of  the  nation  was  so  improved  that  the 
rate  of  interest  on  government  bonds  was  reduced  from  a 
five  per  cent,  to  a  three  per  cent,  basis.  Throughout  tb 
country,  as  a  whole,  prosperity  reigned,  and  if  the  people 
were  not  satisfied  with  the  condition  it  was  because  content- 
ment is  not  the  lot  of  humanity. 

It  is  certain  that  the  Western  silver  barons  were  disgrun 
led  through  all  these  years,  the  brightest  in  the  annals  of  an 


I 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  57 

people,  an  they  were  persistently  and  surely  undermining 
the  confidence  which  made  such  magnificent  growth  and 
prosperity  possible.  Their  movements  were  watched  with 
keen  and  anxious  interest  the  world  over  by  the  men  of  capi- 
tal and  enterprise,  who  had  set  the  busy  wheels  of  progress 
in  motion.  In  1890  they  forced  the  passage  of  the  Sherman 
law,  the  baneful  effect  of  which  almost  criminal  blunder  is 
fully  explained  in  other  articles  in  this  work,  and  is  known 
to  the  whole  world.  Prosperity  and  progress  were  soon  at 
an  end.  The  country  was  no  longer  safely  on  a  gold  basis. 
Distrust,  uncertainty  and  stagnation  supplanted  hope,  confi- 
dence and  activity. 

The  free  silver  people  claim  that  if  the  Sherman  law  was  the 
cause  of  these  misfortunes,  that  its  repeal  in  1893  ought  to 
have  removed  them.  Such  argument  is  extremely  foolish. 
It  is  a  fact  well  known  to  the  world  that  the  Fifty-third  Con- 
gress was  practically  a  free  silver  body.  "  The  failure  of  a  bill 
to  sustain  the  faith  and  credit  of  the  government  was  greeted 
with  cheers  from  members  in  the  lower  house.  It  is  also 
loudly  and  vociferously  heralded  by  free  silver  advocates  that 
the  doctrine  is  spreading  and  taking  deeper  root  in  all  parts  of 
the  land.  With  our  gold  standard  so  vigorously  assailed  since 
the  day  the  Sherman  law  was  repealed,  and  its  very  existence 
in  such  grave  doubt,  no  well  informed,  well  balanced  man 
would  argue  that  the  country  is,  or  has  been  since  1893,  in 
position  to  further  test  the  merits  of  the  gold  standard.  But 
as  any  candid  man  must  admit,  its  merits  were  fully  tested 
from  1878  to  1890,  and  with  results  that  amazed  mankind. 
But  in  1890,  as  stated,  its  existence  was  threatened,  and  that 
folly  also  amazed  mankind,  excepting  only  the  advocates  of 
free  silver. 


THE  LOSSES  OF  1893. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  the  banks  "combined"  to  raid  the 
Treasury  and  bring  on  the  panic  of  1893.  ^^  ought  not  be 
necessary  to  combat  this  absurd  contention,  but  so  many 
people  believe  it  to  be  true  that  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  show 
Avho  sustained  the  losses  of  that  calamity. 


58  DOI^IvARS,  OR  WHAT? 

The  New  York  Herald  estimated,  from  actual  market 
quotations,  that  within  a  short  time  the  shrinkage  in  the 
value  of  stocks  and  bonds  listed  on  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange  was  $700,000,000.  These  stocks  were  largely 
owned  or  held  by  banks  as  collateral  for  loans.  Scores  of 
operators  in  Wall  street  were  beggared.  Nearly  700  banks 
throughout  the  country,  many  of  which  afterward  became 
wholly  insolvent  from  sudden  shrinkage  of  assets,  were  forced 
to  close  doors.  Capitalists  and  investors  suffered  in  propor- 
tion. The  total  losses  directly  and  indirectly  sustained  by 
the  moneyed  interests  of  the  country  amounted  to  thousands 
of  millions.  Banks  that  did  not  fail,  lost  heavily,  suffering  in 
many  instances  serious  impairment  of  capital.  Deposits 
shrunk  from  25  to  75  per  cent.,  and  banking  for  a  time,  to 
say  nothing  of  losses,  was  wholly  without  profit;  and  owing 
to  general  stagnation  and  uncertainty,  there  has  since  been 
no  money  in  the  business. 

Even  the  free  silver  advocate  does  not  claim  that  the 
bankers  and  capitalists  of  the  country  are  fools.  Yet  this  is 
the  only  conclusion  if  they  really  *' combined''  to  bring  on 
that  panic.  Such  losses  surely  follow  all  panics,  and  nobody 
understands  this  so  well  as  the  man  who  handles  money. 

To  stay  the  general  disaster  at  the  time,  the  New  York 
banks  imperiled  their  own  safety  by  loaning  money  to  banks 
in  every  part  of  the  Union.  I  doubt  whether  there  would 
have  been  a  dozen  banks  with  open  doors  in  Tennessee  if  aid 
from  the  New  York  '*gold  bugs"  had  been  refused,  and  the 
ruin  of  business  men  and  borrowers  of  all  classes  would  have 
been  complete.  What  is  said  of  Tennessee  was  true  in 
greater  or  less  degree  of  all  Southern  and  Western  states. 
The  ''gold  bugs"  used  clearing  house  certificates  at  home, 
and  at  great  risk  sent  good  money  throughout  the  land  in 
answer  to  the  general  cry  of  distress.  These  facts  are  well 
known  to  every  well  posted  man.  The  writer  believes  that 
these  bankers  have  made  some  mistakes  in  policy,  as  all  men 
do;  but  whatever  their  errors  of  judgment,  they  have  never 
"conspired"  against  the  government  or  people,  and  the  free 
silver  sections  of  the  South  and  West  owe  them  a  debt  of 
gratitude  that  must  remain  long  unsettled. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  reason  bank  men,  almost  as 
unit  oppose  free  silver  is,  not  that  they  want  to  "conspire" 
against  anybody,  but  because  they  so  thoroughly  understand 
the  disaster  that  would  follow.     They  know  that  its  increased 

mm 


Mk 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  59 

coinage  under  the  Sherman  act  brought  the  panic  of  1893. 
They  do  not  guess  or  think  that  this  was  the  cause,  but  they 
know  that  it  was.  And  they  do  not  want  any  more  silver 
panics,  particularly  not  a  free  silver  panic,  which  they  also 
know  would  be  the  worst  of  all.  They  know  that  they  could 
not  stand  the  consequent  losses,  and  they  know  that  the 
people  could  not  stand  them.  The  only  selfish  motive  they 
have  in  trying  to  maintain  the  present  gold  standard  is  to  re- 
store prosperity  to  the  country,  and  consequently  to  restore 
their  former  earnings  and  profits.  This  is  a  kind  of  selfish- 
ness common  to  all  men. 

This  article  is  not  intended  in  any  sense  as  a  vindication 
of  bankers  and  moneyed  men,  but  merely  to  remove  mistaken 
notions  which  are  in  the  way  of  sound  money  legislation. 

Men  send  for  a  doctor  when  they  are  sick,  a  lawyer  when 
they  want  legal  redress,  a  preacher  when  they  want  spiritual 
comfort,  a  plumber  when  the  water  pipe  bursts ;  they  go  to 
an  architect  when  they  want  to  build  a  house,  send  the  horse 
to  the  blacksmith  when  they  want  him  shod,  engage  a 
gardener  to  turn  the  ground  and  plant  seed,  and  hire  a  rail 
splitter  when  the  farm  needs  fencing;  but  when  finances  get 
out  of  joint,  they  abuse  and  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  men  who 
handle  the  money  and  know  most  about  it.  There  is  a  flaw 
somewhere  in  this  general  way  of  doing  things.  It  might  be 
well  for  awhile  as  an  experiment  to  have  the  lawyers  shoe 
the  horses  and  the  rail  splitters  dose  the  sick.  If  the  shoes 
pinched  and  the  patients  languished,  these  things  would  be 
in  keeping  with  the  clumsy  tinkering  and  patching  by 
novices  of  the  nation's  finances. 


THE  "MONEY  POWER." 

Suppose,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  we  admit  the  false 
notion  that  the  ''money  power"  is  unreasonably  prejudiced 
against  silver.  Is  a  remedy  possible  if  applied  only  in  the 
United  States?  And  how  can  any  legal  remedy  be  applied? 
Money  cannot  be  legislated  out  of  bank  vaults  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  people,  and  put  into 
circulation   in   the   United   States.     We   are   necessarily   a 


IS 

i 

d 

y 

I 


60  DOI.LARS,  OR  WHAT? 

borrowing  people,  and  whether  that  policy  be  right  or  wrong, 
we  are  not  in  condition,  nor  in  position,  to  put  a  stop  to 
borrowing.  We  must  have  foreign  money,  and  also  the  use 
of  home  accumulations,  to  carry  our  obligations  and  to  de- 
velop our  resources.  But  can  we  pass  laws  to  make  English- 
men send  over  money  to  build  our  railroads;  to  make  home 
capitalists  build  and  operate  furnaces,  mills,  open  mines  and 
buy  our  surplus  lands,  and  to  make  lenders  discount  our  notes 
and  accept  our  bills? 

When  we  agitate  and  approach  free  coinage  all  these  peopl 
lock  their  money  up.  Home  money  lenders  are  alarmed  an 
foreign  capitalists  look  upon  us  with  contempt.  Industria 
progress  comes  to  a  standstill.  We  may  fuss  and  fume  and 
beat  the  air  all  we  are  a  mind  to,  but  our  impotent  fury 
merely  closes  the  money  chests  tighter.  The  people  we  rail^, 
at  are  not  merely  the  Rothchilds,  a  few  great  financial  con^ 
cerns  in  England,  and  a  few  thousand  bankers  in  America 
That  vague,  greatly  abused  and  little  understood  thing,  th 
"  money  power,"  is  a  mightier  force  than  even  the  populists 
claim  that  it  is.  It  is  the  PEOPIyE~the  millions  of  intelli 
gent,  thrifty  and  prudent  people  who  have  put  aside  th 
accumulations  of  their  industry.  Every  man  who  has  saved 
and  owns  money,  whether  the  sum  be  $100  or  $100,000,  or 
who  holds  the  notes  of  his  neighbor,  who  is  a  depositor  in  a 
savings  bank,  or  who  is  an  investor  in  securities,  state  bonds 
or  mortgages,  is  one  of  the  '*  money  power."  If  his  hoard 
be  only  $100  he  is  as  easily  frightened  and  runs  to  cover  as 
quickly  as  the  man  with  a  million.  He  is,  indeed,  more  apt 
to  lock  his  money  up  and  put  it  entirely  out  of  sight  and  out 
of  reach  than  the  larger  and  broader  holder.  If  you  tiave 
anything  to  sell,  you  cannot  sell  it  to  him.  Price  counts  foiH 
nothing.  If  you  ask  him  to  join  you  in  an  enterprise,  he"^ 
laughs  at  you.  If  you  would  borrow  of  him,  he  shies  at  your 
collateral.  He  may  not  be  learned  in  the  science  of  money. 
He  may  tell  you  that  he  knows  nothing  about  the  financial^ 
question,  but  he  knows  how  to  make  you  pay  if  you  ow« 
him;  and  if  you  scare  him,  he  knows  how  to  lock  up  hii 
money  and  to  keep  it. 

He  may  be  a  populist  or  a  free  silver  advocate — many  oi 
these  I  have  observed  grip  the  purse  strings  tightest,  and 
they  generally  grab  for  gold  when  they  put  money  into  holes 
or  stockings — but  whatever  he  be,  he  is  one  of  that  mighty 
army  composing  the  "  money  power."     There  are  some  six 

mm 


DOIwIvARS,  OR  WHAT?  6i 

or  eight  millions  of  them.  They  fill  every  vocation  and 
avenue  of  life.  They  are  lawyers,  doctors,  artisans,  mer- 
chants, laborers,  farmers,  preachers,  beggars,  guardians,  trust- 
ees, executors,  capitalists,  men  and  women,  old  and  young. 

They  own  the  stock  of  the  savings  banks,  the  national 
banks,  trust  companies  and  other  corporations;  own  the 
money  deposits;  and  the  officers  of  these  institutions  are 
merely  the  paid  instruments  used  by  them.  If  they  heap 
money  upon  bank  counters,  these  custodians  of  their  earnings 
must  use  great  care  and  discretion  in  fhe  keeping  and  dis- 
position of  their  funds.  If  they  want  the  money  they  have 
committed  to  the  care  of  the  banks,  whether  to  invest  or 
to  hoard,  it  must  always  be  ready  for  them.  The  banker  is 
branded  with  incompetency  and  disgrace,  or  with  dereliction 
of  duty  and  sent  to  prison,  if  he  cannot  pay.  This  is  the 
*' money  power"  that  cornered  money  and  brought  on  the 
panic  of  1893.  Whatever  may  be  the  precipitating  cause,  it 
is  the  "  power"  that  brings  on  all  financial  disturbances.  It 
is  the  "power"  which  now  distrusts  the  financial  policy  of 
the  United  States.  It  is  the  "  power  "  which  believes  that 
there  is  more  silver  in  the  mines  of  the  world  than  can  be 
safely  used  as  money  by  the  United  States  without  driving 
out  its  better  money — gold — and  which  fears  great  disaster 
from  further  silver  legislation.  It  is  a  "power"  which  can- 
not be  driven  or  legislated  into  buying  and  selling,  lending, 
building  and  developing.  It  will  stand  stock  still  till  it  gets 
ready  to  move.  Railery,  threats  and  denunciation  do  not 
budge  it.  It  is  the  power  of  human  avarice  and  self-preser- 
vation. Show  it  gain,  confidence,  stability,  and  it  welcomes 
you.  Threaten  it  with  free  coinage  of  silver  and  depreciated 
money  and  it  draws  away  in  alarm,  yet  grim  and  resolute. 

Since  this  almighty  "  money  power  "  is  afraid  of  free  silver, 
and  will  again  and  indefinitely  arrest  every  industry  and 
enterprise  in  the  country  if  that  heresy  be  threatened  or  in- 
stituted, what  folly  and  madness  to  fly  in  the  face  of  it ! 

We  want  prosperity,  and  we  cannot  have  it  unless  we 
fully  satisfy  the  people  who  have  money  to  invest,  whether 
in  small  or  large  sums. 

The  free  silver  people  do  not  look  at  the  practical  con- 
dition and  situation  of  things.  They  have  a  theory,  and 
reason  in  the  abstract.  They  block  progress  and  distress  the 
country  exploiting  that  theory.  They  would  withdraw  the 
corner  stone  of  thousands  of  millions  of  credits  and  topple 


62  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

the  whole  financial  and  commercial  structure  experimenting 
with  that  theory.  Practical  men  know  that  it  is  a  mere 
theory,  vicious  and  dangerous.  It  is  a  catching  theory,  be- 
cause with  it  is  coupled  abuse  of  the  **  money  power"  which 
so  many  voters  fail  utterly  to  comprehend.  The  voter  him- 
self may  be  an  important  factor  in  the  *'  money  power,"  yet 
unable  to  understand  it — be  filled  with  prejudice  and  resent- 
ment against  it.  Any  of  us  who  are  industrious  and  thrifty, 
and  who  have  saved  money,  are  part  of  that  much  abused 
and  really  potential  '*  power." 

Will  a  large  per  cent,  of  the  voters  of  the  country  continue 
to  blindly  follow  these  free  coinage  theorists,  or  have  they 
had  enough  of  them  and  of  the  disasters  that  follow  in  their 
wake? 

If  we  want  to  start  our  mills  and  give  life  to  our  enter^ 
prises,  they  furnish  us  no  money  with  which  to  do  these 
things.  The  worst  and  loudest  of  them  merely  want  our 
votes  and  the  fat  offices  we  can  give  them.  It  is  to  the 
"  money  power  "  we  must  look  for  the  means  of  paying  our 
labor  and  handling  our  products.  If  we  want  to  sell  a  farm, 
a  horse,  a  crop  of  wheat,  a  bale  of  cotton,  a  town  lot,  we 
never  think  of  the  free  coinage  orator,  but  go  to  some  person 
who  belongs  to  the  "  money  power "  and  strike  him  for  a 
trade.  Let  us  make  friends  with  these  people,  and  cast  out 
utterly  the  theorists  and  designing  demagogues,  who  would 
destroy  us,  professing  (for  our  votes)  to  love  us,  and  to  be 
infinitely  concerned  for  us. 


"PRIVILEGES"  OF  NATIONAL  BANKS. 


National  Banks  have  no  "  privileges,"  in  the  sense  that 
they  are  a  favored  class  of  institutions.  During,  and  for  a 
time  subsequent  to  the  war  period,  when  government  bonds 
were  low  priced,  and  bore  high  rates  of  interest,  there  was  a 
good  profit  in  National  bank  note  circulation,  but  that  day 
has  passed;  and  there  is  now  a  well  defined  loss  to  the 
National  banks  in  the  exercise  of  their  "  privileges."  This 
has  been  the  case  for  a  good  many  years. 

To  issue   $45,000  circulation  now,  a  bank  must   invest 


DOLI.ARS,  OR  WHAT?  63 

$57,000  of  its  capital  in  United  States  bonds,  to  be  deposited 
with  the  United  States  Treasury  to  secure  its  circulation. 
This  estimate  is  based  on  four  per  cent,  bonds  at  1.14,  about 
an  average  price  for  eighteen  months. 

The  bank  must  then  deposit  $2,250  with  the  Treasurer  to 
the  credit  of  a  fund  known  as  the  five  per  cent,  redemption 
fund,  leaving  it  the  use  of  $42,750  on  an  investment  of 
$57,000.  Therefore  it  loses  entirely  the  use  of  $14,250  of  its 
capital.  Money  is  worth  eight  per  cent,  throughout  the 
South  and  West,  and  in  other  localities.  Counting  interest 
at  eight  per  cent,  the  loss  on  this  item  annually  is  $1,140. 

The  four  per  cent,  bonds  mature  in  1907 — twelve  years 
hence.  At  maturity  the  face  value  only  will  be  paid.  There- 
fore in  twelve  years  the  bank  loses  $7,000  premium  it  paid 
for  the  bonds.     The  annual  loss  on  this  item  is  $583. 

There  is  a  tax  of  one  per  cent,  on  the  circulation.  The 
loss  on  this  account  is  annually  $450. 

These  three  items  constitute  the  principal  cost  of  the  Na- 
tional banking  "privileges.** 

There  is  but  one  item  of  profit,  which  is  the  interest  on 
the  bonds.     This  for  twelve  months  is  $2,000. 

Therefore,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  the  account  stands  as 
follows : 

Interest  on  the  $14,250  item $1,140 

Annual  loss  on  the  $7,000  premium  item 583 

Tax  on  circulation 450 

Total  loss $2,174 

I^ess  interest  on  $50,000  bonds 2,000 

Net  loss  to  bank , $     173 

Counting  the  $14,250  item  on  a  basis  of  six  per  cent,  there 
would  be  an  apparent  profit  of  $112  ;  but  it  would  be  appar- 
ent only.  Other  items  of  expense  incident  to  the  system 
would  much  more  than  wipe  it  out.  But  I  base  the  estimate 
on  eight  per  cent.,  as  it  is  in  the  East  only  and  in  the  money 
centers  that  lower  rates  prevail. 

Other  items  of  cost  are  National  bank  examiners*  fees,  $50 
per  year,  if  two  examinations  are  made ;  the  advertising  of 
five  annual  statements ;  the  exchange  and  express  charges 
in  keeping  intact  the  $2,250  redemption  fund,  and  in  trans- 
portation of  new  issues  of  notes ;  loss  in  circulation  while 
new  notes  are  in  process  of  substitution  for  old,  or  mutilated 
notes ;   attention  and  labor  in  making  various  reports,  and 


64  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 


^ 


Other  items  of  direct  or  indirect  cost.  It  is  safe  to  say  tliat 
the  "privilege"  costs  a  National  bank,  issuing  $45,000  cur- 
rency,  directly,  not  less  than  $350  per  annum. 

If  the  bank  has  a  large  line  of  deposits  the  cost  is  mucli 
more,  owing  to  increased  work  in  making  examinations  and 
reports. 

In  reserve  cities  banks  are  also  required  to  carry  twenty 
five  per  cent,  reserve,  their  own  notes,  and  other  specified 
moneys  and  sight  exchange  not  counting  as  part  of  this  re- 
serve. The  class  of  assets  they  carry  and  the  kind  of  paper 
they  discount  is  also  prescribed  by  law  or  regulation 

A  State  bank,  with  equal  capital  and  deposits,  can  maki 
more  money  than  a  National  bank.  As  at  present  constitu- 
ted, the  National  banking  system  is  a  decaying  system,  and 
no  new  National  banks  would  be  organized  but  for  the  rea- 
son that  the  people  trust  them  more  than  they  do  State 
banks,  and  the  more  readily  patronize  them.  And  this  is  an 
anomally,  considering  the  general  prejudice  against  them. 

It  is  readily  seen  that  it  is  a  mistaken  prejudice.  It  is  one 
that  would  soon  disappear  if  the  facts  were  known.  As  re- 
cently stated  by  the  JVew  Tork  jfournal  of  Commerce  and 
Co7nmercial  Bulletin^  this  prejudice  has  much  to  do  with  the 
free  silver  sentiment  of  the  South  and  other  sections,  and  if 
pains  were  taken  by  the  press  to  publish  the  simple  facts, 
and  make  them  generally  understood,  the  most  serious  diffi- 
culty in  the  way  of  a  simple  and  proper  revision  of  our  cur- 
rency system  would  be  removed. 


BANK  NOTE  CIRCULATION.* 

The  writer  is  not  one  of  those  who  are  entirely  satis^ 
with  the  present  inflexible  financial  system  and  unequal  dis- 
tribution of  money. 

The  government  circulation  is  fixed  and  cannot  be  safely 
expanded,  nor  could  it  be  properly  distributed  if  it  could  be 
changed. 

There  is  a  loss  to  National  banks  in  issuing  currency,  an 


See  also  article  "A  Word  to  the  East." 


J 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  65 

consequently  there  can  be  no  general  expansion  of  bank  note 
circulation  to  meet  local  needs. 

Such  expansion  at  certain  seasons  is  a  serious  need,  and 
can  be  provided  for  only  through  the  medium  of  banks. 

And  through  that  medium  only  by  making  circulation 
profitable  to  banks. 

Men  do  not  do  business  merely  to  be  obliging.  They  do 
it  for  profit.  Bankers  are  neither  worse  nor  better  than  other 
people.  The  farmer  does  not  grow  wheat,  hogs  and  cattle  to 
oblige  his  neighbors.  He  purposes  getting  a  living  out  of 
the  products  of  his  farm.  The  merchant  does  not  sell  sugar 
and  coffee,  shoes  and  domestic,  merely  because  the  people 
need  these  things ;  he  sells  them  for  profit ;  for  the  purpose 
of  support  and  accumulation.  Nor  can  the  banker  be  ex- 
pected to  employ  his  capital  in  providing  a  circulating  me- 
dium unless  he  gets  a  fair  profit  out  of  it.  And  this  should 
be  given  to  him — not  to  favor  him  or  to  make  his  a  favored 
business,  but  to  put  his  business  on  such  basis  that  he  can 
afford  to  supply  the  money  that  is  actually  needed  in  his 
locality. 

The  people  must  have  money.  It  must  be  supplied  in 
some  way,  and  it  cannot  be  supplied  in  the  varying  volume 
needed  in  different  localities  except  through  banks  of  issue. 

If  money  is  needed  in  a  particular  locality  to  move  a  crop 
or  to  aid  particular  undertakings,  the  government  cannot 
place  the  money  there  when  wanted,  but  a  local  bank  of  issue 
could  do  so.  And,  it  could  retire  the  money  when  the  need 
for  it  passed.  And  if  the  law  gave  such  banks  a  profit  in 
their  circulation,  as  it  should,  they  would  supply  the  country 
with  all  the  money  that  could  be  safely  used.  The  banker 
would  gain  no  more  than  the  people.  His  profits  would  be 
limited  to  the  profitable  employment  of  his  money  by  the 
people.  His  occupation  would  be  open  to  competition,  as  is 
that  of  the  merchant,  the  farmer,  the  lawyer.  Anybody 
could  engage  in  banking.  To  say  that  he  would  enjoy  a 
monopoly  would  be  foolish.  If  he  wickedly  conspired  with 
his  fellows  to  ''contract"  the  currency — the  iniquitous  com- 
binations that  the  stump  politician  talks  about — he  would 
contract  his  profits  in  proportion.  If  he  squeezed  and  bank- 
rupted his  customers  he  would  bankrupt  himself.  He  would 
grow  rich  no  faster  than  equally  capable  men  in  other  lines 
of  business.  The  fear  of  combinations  to  "contract"  the 
currency  if  all  paper  money  were  issued  by  private  iastitu- 


66  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

tions  is  entirely  groundless.  People  who  hold  such  views 
overlook  the  fact  that  banks  now  have,  and  have  always  had 
the  power  to  *' contract"  loans,  which  amounts  to  exactly  the 
same  thing;  but  nobody  ever  heard  of  a  combination  of 
banks  for  this  purpose.  The  banks  of  any  city  in  the  coun- 
try have  it  in  their  power  at  any  time  to  call  loans,  and  to 
close  the  doors  of  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  the  business  peo- 
ple. But  no  such  combination  was  ever  formed  for  such  pur- 
pose, nor  will  such  combination  ever  be  formed,  either  to  call 
loans,  make  money  dear  and  squeeze  customers,  or  to  '*  con- 
tract" bank  note  circulation  for  a  similar  purpose.  Willful 
''contraction"  of  bank  note  circulation,  under  a  general  bank 
note  system,  would  mean  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  call- 
ing of  loans  and  consequent  business  embarrassment,  which 
bankers  themselves  could  afford  no  more  than  could  their 
customers.  Any  such  apprehension  is  based  on  imperfect 
knowledge  of  the  business  relations  between  bankers  and 
their  customers. 

Unfortunately  somebody  must  do  the  banking,  since 
ninety-five  per  cent,  of  all  the  business  of  the  country  is 
done  through  the  banks ;  ninety- five  per  cent,  of  all  obliga- 
tions are  settled  with  bank  checks ;  and  people  would  find 
themselves  not  only  put  to  great  inconvenience,  but  wonder- 
fully short  of  funds,  if  these  evidences  of  credit,  this 
immense  and  ready  currency — ^bank  checks — were  withdrawn 
from  circulation.  The  pinch  would  be  acute.  The  panic  of 
1893,  or  of  1873,  of  1857,  o^  ^^37)  o^  <^f  ^^y  other  time, 
would  be  a  financial  oasis  compared  with  the  collapse  that 
would  follow  the  withdrawal  of  the  bank  check  circulation. 
The  populistic  and  at  present  foolish  cry  for  a  money  circu- 
lation of  $50  per  capita  would  be  none  too  loud  nor  too  fer- 
vent. Yet  the  banks  generally  pay  for  printing  all  these 
checks,  handle  them  all,  pay  postage  and  lose  exchange  in 
collecting  them,  employ  expert  men  to  keep  the  accounts 
without  charge,  and  often  at  serious  risk  and  loss. 

I  said  unfortunately  somebody  must  do  this  work,  and 
render  these  invaluable  services  to  the  people,  for  it  does 
seem  unfortunate  that  the  necessity  exists  for  a  business 
class  which  must  be  so  roundly  abused  by  every  demagogue 
who  wants  an  office,  and  by  every  man  who  owns  a  share  in 
a  Western  silver  mine,  whose  product  he  wants  the  govern- 
ment to  buy.* 

*See  article,  "A  Word  to  the  East." 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  67 

OUR  INDEBTEDNESS  ABROAD.* 

Careless  writers  and  speakers  encourage  a  ruinous  policy 
of  repudiation  by  asserting  that  America  pays  an  annual 
interest  to  Europe  of  $200,000,000.  Such  claims  are  absurd 
in  the  extreme.  It  is  probable  that  if  all  the  American 
stocks  and  bonds  held  abroad  were  interest-paying  securities, 
the  charge  might  amount  to  $75,000,000  or  $100,000,000. 
But  large  quantities  of  them  default  in  interest,  and  are 
otherwise  under  a  cloud.  Many  of  the  properties  repre- 
sented are  constantly  going  through  the  processes  of  reor- 
ganization. A  number  of  the  largest  railway  systems  of  the 
country,  with  their  stocks  largely  owned  by  foreigners,  have 
failed  to  pay  interest,  gone  into  the  hands  of  receivers,  and 
the  principal,  to  say  nothing  of  interest,  largely  scaled  under 
reorganization  agreements.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  actual 
interest  payments  to  Europe  exceed  $50,000,000  or  $60,000,- 
000.  This  is  a  large  sum,  but  a  comparatively  small  one  for 
70,000,000  people  owning  the  richest  country  on  the  globe. 
The  writer  does  not  believe  in  the  policy  of  extravagant 
borrowing.  To  borrow  money  for  safe  and  legitimate  under- 
takings and  enterprises  is  well  enough — is,  indeed,  desirable; 
while  reckless  borrowing  leads  to  disaster.  But  we  already 
owe  Europe,  not  a  very  extravagant  sum  total  of  money, 
which  was  loaned  us  by  all  classes  over  there,  and  whether 
it  was  all  wisely  borrowed  or  not,  it  would  be  very  unwise  to 
repudiate  any  part  of  the  debt  by  paying  it  in  depreciated 
silver  or  otherwise.  We  cannot,  as  a  civilized,  commercial 
and  progressive  people,  live  within  ourselves,  and  we  cannot 
afford  to  have  all  other  nations  give  us  the  cold  shoulder. 
Possibly  future  generations  might  recover  in  a  commercial 
and  industrial  sense  from  such  course,  but  those  of  us  now 
in  charge  of  this  part  of  the  planet  would  like  some  pleas- 
ure and  profit  from  our  possessions. 

Let  me  illustrate:  In  1887  the  city  of  Chattanooga,  the 
home  of  the  writer,  a  city  of  probably  20,000  population  at 
that  time,  bought  and  sold,  if  I  remember  correctly, 
$12,000,000  of  real  estate.  The  figures  are  not  material,  the 
amount  being  very  large.  That  was  a  boom  period  of  great 
inflation,  extravagance  and  going  in  debt.     When  the  bubble 

*The  author  has  at  hand  no  statistics  of  foreign  indebtedness  nor  of 
interest  payments,  but  believes  the  estimates  in  this  article  to  be  fairly 
correct. 


68  DOIvI^ARS,  OR  WHAT? 

burst,  and  our  people  began  to  count  up  and  ascertain  their 
true  condition,  they  found  themselves  in  a  bad  fix.  They 
owed,  in  the  aggregate,  for  a  small  town,  an  immense  sum 
of  money.  Such  inflation  and  indebtedness  ought  to  have 
staggered  a  city  of  five  times  our  population.  But  what  did 
our  people  do?  Call  a  mass  meeting  and  agree  to  repudiate? 
Offer  a  compromise  at  25,  50  or  60  cents  on  the  dollar? 
They  were  not  made  of  that  sort  of  material.  They  went  to 
work  like  men,  and  have  practically  squared  the  account. 
Most  of  us  are  wiser  than  before,  and  shall  likely  be  more 
careful  in  future  about  how  much  paper  we  sign  for  either 
real  estate  or  borrowed  money. 

But  suppose  we  had  repudiated.  What  sort  of  a  city 
would  we  now  have?  Who  would  want  to  come,  invest 
money  and  live  among  us?  If  any  of  us  were  looking  for  a 
new  home,  would  we  risk  our  money  or  cast  our  lot  with  a 
people  who  had  repudiated,  or  made  a  ''settlement"  of  just 
obligations  they  could  have  paid? 

No,  as  a  matter  of  self-interest,  and  as  a  matter  of  com- 
mon justice,  we  do  not  want  to  scale  our  debts  to  foreign 
countries.  The  Chattanooga  people  do  not,  the  writer  is 
certain,  since  they  stood  up  unflinchingly  under  pro  rata 
burdens  many  times  as  great ;  nor  do  the  good  people  of  any 
other  city  or  community  in  America.  All  that  need  be  done 
is  to  let  them  understand  fully  the  intent  and  real  meaning 
of  all  this  free  silver  talk,  and  the  legitimate  consequences 
of  such  policy  in  practice.  Such  understanding  would,  of 
course,  fail  of  efiect  on  the  silver  mine  owners,  who  have 
been  trying  for  twenty  years  to  get  the  people  to  pay  all 
debts  with  the  product  of  their  mines.  But  other  people 
will  not  indorse  any  such  policy  when  they  understand  its 
meaning. 

If  our  foreign  obligations  are  a  source  of  serious  worry 
and  apprehension,  the  only  safe  or  right  course  is  to  retrench 
and  economize  as  a  nation  and  people  for  a  few  years  and 
pay  them.  A  few  years  of  rigid  economy  would  wipe  out 
every  evidence  of  obligation  to  Europe.  If  we  would  leave 
off"  our  fine  ways  of  living,  and  return  to  something  like  the 
honest  simplicity  of  our  fathers,  we  should  soon  square 
accounts  with  the  Rothschilds,  and  all  the  other  "gold  bugs" 
of  Europe,  and  elsewhere,  as  to  that  matter. 

We  have  been  too  extravagant ;  too  reckless  in  public  and 
private  affairs.     No  conservative  man  doubts  that.     But  if 


m 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  69 

we  are  restless  and  in  a  hurry  to  settle,  the  best  way  out — 
the  only  way  out,  unless  we  intend  to  invite  calamity — is  to 
economize  and  pay  out.  Fortunately,  we  have  the  resources 
and  ability  to  settle  within  a  comparatively  short  time  if  we 
are  impatient  to  do  so,  and  get  down  to  hard  pan  living  and 
economy.  Too  great  haste  to  pay,  however,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, is  childish  and  unwise,  but  it  is  infinitely  safer 
and  more  preferable  than  payment  at  a  discount.  There 
will  be,  if  we  pursue  an  honest  policy,  really  no  need  ever  to 
pay  or  reduce  our  obligations  abroad.  Nor  will  there  be 
cause  for  alarm  or  distress  on  account  of  our  indebtedness  to 
foreigners. 


HOW  TO  GET  MORE  MONEY. 

The  following  table  gives  per  capita  circulation  of  money 
in  the  principal  countries  of  the  world,  fractions  in  most  in- 
stances omitted  :* 

United  States $25  00 

England 20  00 

France 36  cx) 

Germany , 19  00 

Austria 9  co 

Netherlands 25  00 

Belgium 26  cx) 

Italy 9  CX) 

Spain 18  00 

Portugal 25  00 

Russia 8  00 

Roumania 6  34 

Turkey 2  29 

Australia 24  00 

Japan 4  00 

India 3  33 

China 2  08 

Bulgaria i  76 

Mexico 4  71 

Central  America  States 3  78 

South  America  States 17  00 

It  may  be  noted  that  the  gold  standard  countries  are,  as  a 
whole,  in  money  circulation,  far  in  advance  of  the  silver 
countries,  and  some  of  the  silver  countries  have  a  greatly 
depreciated  paper  currency,  which  brings  up  their  per  capita 
circulation. 

*  1894  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  the  Mint,  page  45. 


70  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  all  of  the  great  progressive 
nations  are  on  a  gold  basis. 

It  appears  that  France  has  the  largest  per  capita  circula- 
tion of  any  country  in  the  world.  It  has  $1,317,000,000 
metallic  money.  This  is  but  $67,000,000  more  metallic 
money  than  the  United  States  had  in  November  last ;  but 
the  advantage  of  France  is  in  its  large  stock  of  gold,  giving 
it  a  perfectly  safe  basis  for  $36  per  capita.  As  shown  else- 
where, that  country  has  $825,000,000  of  gold  and  #492,000,- 
000  of  silver.  We  have  $133,000,000  more  silver  and  $200,- 
000,000  less  gold  than  France.  If  we  had  say  $1,200,000,000 
of  gold,  we,  too,  might  have  a  safe  basis  for  $36  per  capita, 
and,  owing  to  our  large  system  of  bank  credits,  money  would, 
at  the  same  per  capita,  be  vastly  more  abundant  with  us  than 
in  France. 

And  if  we  would  drop  our  free  silver  and  inflation  theories 
our  stock  of  gold  would  largely  and  rapidly  increase.  We 
should  soon  have  a  safe  basis  for  all  the  money  that  any  free 
silverite  or  greenbacker  could  want.  Our  threats  of  free 
silver  drive  out  the  gold.  The  only  way  that  we  can  really 
get  an  increased  volume  of  good  money  is  to  increase  our 
gold  basis,  as  France  has  done.  This  we  can  easily  do  if  we 
discard  the  silver  mania  and  take  our  finances  out  of  politics. 

Confidence  invites  gold;  and  it  would  attract  it  to  this 
country  in  large  quantities,  owing  to  our  large  field  for 
investments. 

We  could  easily  keep  at  home  our  own  annual  output  of 
nearly  fifty  millions,  which  is  increasing,  and  also  draw  largely 
from  other  countries.  If  we  were  sensible  and  practical 
financiers  we  should  soon  have  $30  to  $40  per  capita,  on  the 
best  money  basis  in  the  world.  We  should  have,  considering 
our  system  of  credits,  more  money  than  we  should  know 
what  to  do  with ;  and  too  much  money  is  a  misfortue — worse, 
if  possible,  than  not  having  enough.  If  there  had  never  been 
a  greenback  or  free  silver  party  in  this  country,  we  should 
now  have  vastly  more  than  $24  per  capita.  And  it  would 
have  been  money  above  suspicion. 

Silver  experiments  and  free  silver  agitation  have  kept  from 
us,  and  even  driven  from  us  in  large  volume,  the  only  real 
basis  of  money.  We  have  lost  directly  and  indirectly  on  this 
account  not  less  than  $500,000,000  of  gold  within  ten  years. 
This  is  a  perfectly  safe  estimate,  and  may  be  easily  shown  to 
be  so.     Here  is  a  loss  of  more  than  $7  per  capita  of  the  basis 


^H 


DOLLARS.  OR  WHAT?  71 

alone  of  good  currency,  and  our  foolish  financiering  in  former 
years  has  also  cost  us  dearly.  If  this  country  had  been  upon 
an  absolutely  safe  financial  basis  for  twenty  years,  we  should 
now  have  more  gold,  as  well  as  more  silver,  and  a  larger  circu- 
lation per  capita  than  any  country  on  earth.  Considering 
these  easily  demonstrated  facts,  the  talk  of  free  coinage  and 
a  silver  basis  is  puerile  and  ridiculous. 


"COIN'S  FINANCIAL  SCHOOL" 

This  is  the  title  of  a  book,  written  in  a  popular  vein, 
emanating  from  Chicago.  Its  author  is  neither  a  lunatic  noi 
a  fool,  but  a  clever  and  ingenious  writer,  It  is  not  wise  ta 
ignore  such  productions.  This  one  is  calculated  to  unsettle 
a  pretty  clear  headed  man  whose  convictions  are  not  based  on 
a  knowledge  of  commercial  laws  and  financial  subjects.  A 
number  of  sound  financial  principles  are  admitted,  and 
demonstrated,  and  adroitly  turned  to  account  of  free  silver 
argument.  For  instance,  he  is  not  an  inflationist,  as  the 
populists  understand  the  term.  He  practically  admits  that 
money  can  not  be  issued  and  made  good  by  the  simple  fiat 
of  the  maker,  whether  the  maker  be  a  government  or  an  in- 
stitution. He  practically  admits  that  there  must  be  a  definite 
promise  to  pay,  and  that  the  kind  of  payment  must  be 
specified.  These  fundamental  principles  of  finance  place  the 
writer  somewhat  in  advance  of  the  average  inflationist  and 
free  silver  advocate. 

He  also  practically  admits  that  gold  would  at  once  go  to  a 
premium,  and  go  out  of  the  country  under  free  coinage. 
And  the  remedy  proposed  for  this  has  the  only  common 
sense  principle  in  support  of  his  theories.  He  would  put  less 
money  in  the  gold  dollar,  and  make  its  commercial  value  the 
same  as  that  of  the  silver  dollar.  This  suggestion  is  sound 
in  principle,  but  for  many  reasons  not  sound  in  practice,  as 
he  would  apply  it.  To  put  a  commercial  dollar's  worth  of 
silver  in  a  silver  dollar,  were  it  clear  that  two  standards  are 
now  possible,  would  be  more  sensible.  To  change  the  stand- 
ard of  value  in  America  would  mean  commercial  ostracism. 
It  would  mean  a  complete  unsettling  of  all  our  vast  system 


72  DOIvLARS,  OR  WHAT? 


^ 


of  credits.  This  he  also  practically  admits — even  makes  a 
point  of.  He  goes  so  far  as  to  intimate  also  by  inference 
that  such  result  would  enable  us  to  pay  our  debts  on  a  re- 
duced basis — say  40,  50  or  60  cents  on  the  dollar,  that  is  to 
say,  on  a  silver  basis,  whatever  basis  of  value  that  might  be. 

The  basis  of  every  argument  he  makes  is  that  the  alleged 
"  demonetization  "  of  silver  by  the  great  nations  has  cut  off 
the  "demand"  for  silver,  and  consequently  reduced  its  com- 
mercial value  and  the  value  of  everything  else.  The  com- 
mercial law  of  supply  and  demand  he  fully  recognizes;  but 
his  remedy  for  the  decline  in  silver  is  the  old  rehash — 
universal  free  coinage.  If  that  be  not  possible,  he  takes  the 
bold  position  of  the  Western  mine  owners,  that  the  United 
States,  single  handed,  can  and  must  raise  the  sacred  metal 
to  a  parity  with  gold.  He  completely  ignores  the  fact  that  the 
enormous  production  of  silver  during  the  past  thirty  years  is 
giving  civilized  nations  more  of  the  cumbersome  metal  than 
they  can  absorb  as  legal  tender  money,  and  its  consequent 
"  demonetization."  He  calls  it  the  "  money  of  the  people ;" 
but  the  truth  is,  the  people  prefer  any  other  kind  of  money. 
They  will  not  have  it.  If  the  merchant  gives  his  customer, 
who  has  made  a  25-cent  purchase,  $9.75  silver  change  for 
a  $10  gold  piece,  or  bill,  the  customer  objects ;  and,  nine 
chances  to  one,  is  offended  if  the  merchant  insists  that  he 
must  take  it.  Most  of  us  remember  the  general  outcry  made 
when  the  "shinplaster"  was  withdrawn  from  circulation, 
and  the  people  forced  to  use  fractional  silver,  instead.  That 
was  a  move  in  the  interest  of  the  silver  mine  owners.  These 
men,  aggressive  and  alert,  have  never  lost  an  opportunity  to 
advance  their  mining  interests,  and  their  indifference  to  the 
convenience  and  interests  of  everybody  else  has  been  cool 
and  complete.     And  they  have  never  lost  an  inch  of  ground. 

A  serious  item  of  expense  of  nearly  all  interior  banks  is 
the  transportation  of  surplus  silver  to  the  government  sub- 
treasuries.  Silver  accumulates  daily;  the  banks  can  do 
nothing  with  it ;  customers  will  not  accept  it ;  other  banks 
will  not  take  it  in  settlement  of  balances ;  even  the  populists 
and  free  silverites  spurn  it,  and  demand  paper  or  gold ;  so 
bankers  must  pay  double  rate  express  charges  to  transport  it 
to  the  government  storage  houses,  and  get  gold  or  paper  for 
it — get  such  money  as  the  people  will  take.  The  bank  the 
author  manages  is  obliged  to  make  such  shipments  and  ex- 


.JM 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  73 

changes  every  month,  sometimes  two  or  three  times  during 
the  month. 

It  was  found  during  the  panic  of  1893  that  a  good  way  to 
stop  a  run  on  a  bank  was  to  pay  in  silver.  The  people  pre-* 
ferred  taking  the  chances  of  the  bank  breaking,  rather  than 
lug  the  silver  about.  The  writer  remembers  one  instance  of 
a  man  who  became  well  nigh  frantic  with  $3,000  in  silver, 
which  he  had  drawn  from  a  bank,  in  his  possession.  He 
finally  put  it  back  into  the  bank,  and  remarked  that  the 
blank  bank  could  go  to  blank  and  the  silver  with  it.  About 
five-sixths  of  all  the  silver  in  the  United  States  is  in  the  gov- 
ernment storage  vaults,  and  a  great  part  of  all  not  there  is  in 
the  vaults  of  the  banks,  and  almost  the  whole  of  it  would  be 
stored  in  the  Treasury  or  banks  but  for  the  fact  that  the 
people  are  obliged  to  use  silver  currency  for  change.  Such 
well  known,  but  much  ignored  facts,  make  plain  the  assertion 
that  the  monetary  systems  of  the  world  can  not  absorb  un- 
limited quantities  of  silver ;  and  also  make  it  plain  why 
nations  with  definitely  organized  monetary  systems  were 
obliged  to  limit  its  use. 

The  author  of  "Coin's  Financial  School"  points  out  the 
fact  that  the  production  of  gold  within  recent  years  has  been 
immense,  and  that  this  metal  has  not  declined  in  value 
because  it  was  not  "demonetized."  This  is  merely  a  bare 
assertion,  without  any  support,  and  palpably  false.  Gold 
has  much  value  in  small  compass,  as  he  himself  forcibly 
shows;  is  convenient,  easily  handled,  and  in  every  way 
desirable,  as  money  in  large  or  small  quantities  ;  $500  in  gold 
may  be  carried  about  the  person,  while  $50  in  silver  cannot. 
All  the  nations  on  earth  might  commit  the  "crime"  of 
alleged  "  demonetization"  against  gold,  and  yet  it  would  lose 
none  of  its  commercial  value,  and  continue  to  circulate, 
without  depreciation,  as  money.  That  is  to  say,  if  gold  were 
"demonetized"  the  world  over  to  no  greater  extent  than 
silver  has  been  "demonetized"  in  America  since  the  "crime" 
of  1873,  such  "discrimination  "  would  not  affect  the  value  of 
the  metal. 

"  Coin's  Financial  School  "  contains  some  false  statements 
of  facts,  probably  the  most  important  of  which  is  that  this 
country  owes  five  thousand  millions  of  dollars  to  foreigners. 
Trustworthy  authorities  place  this  indebtedness  at  less  than 
two  thousand  millions,  and  it  is  safely  within  that  sum. 
But  if  it  were  five  thousand  millions,  no  worse  argument 


74  DOI^IvARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

could  be  offered  in  favor  of  free  coinage  of  silver.  The  sud- 
den withdrawal  of  foreign  capital,  and  the  sudden  demand 
for  payment  of  even*one-tentli  of  that  sum  would  leave  few 
solvent  business  men  or  institutions  in  the  United  States. 

It  may  be  popular  in  some  quarters  to  rail  at  our  creditors, 
and  it  may  have  been  foolish  to  borrow  so  much  money, 
either  directly,  or  in  the  sale  of  our  securities  ;  but  the  obli- 
gations are  out  just  the  same,  and  we  should  be  the  worst 
nation  of  fools  alive,  if  we  were  to  so  thoroughly  alarm  our 
creditors  that  they  would  demand  payment.  This  they  will 
certainly  do,  if  we  seriously  threaten  a  silver  basis.  The 
practical  effect  would  be  precisely  the  same  as  with  a  bank 
if  it  were  to  threaten  to  pay  its  depositors  40,  50  or  60  cents 
on  the  dollar.  That  bank  would  not  be  able  to  keep  open 
doors  twenty-four  hours.  Let  a  merchant  threaten  to  settle 
his  bills  at  50  per  cent,  discount,  and  his  creditors  would 
pounce  upon  him  in  a  hurry.  If  you  are  a  farmer  and  have 
sold  your  neighbor  a  horse  or  a  cow,  and  he  blusters  about 
the  neighborhood  and  says  he  does  not  intend  to  pay  but 
half  the  debt,  how  long  will  it  take  you  to  find  a  lawyer  and 
a  constable ; — or,  if  you  be  combative  and  quick  of  temper, 
to  pummel  him? 

The  United  States,  through  its  free  coinage  demagogues 
and  mine  owners,  has  blustered  a  good  deal  and  paid  most 
dearly  for  it.  The  "  Coin "  book  contains  a  great  deal  of 
bluster,  and  is  a  reminder  of  absurd  and  ridiculous  speeches 
made  in  Congress  by  representatives  from  the  mining  camps. 

It  is  thought  by  some  that  this  book  does  not  merit  par- 
ticular notice.  It  is  a  book  intended  for  the  masses  not 
versed  in  financial  matters ;  its  deceptive  illustrations,  ready 
and  mischievous  suggestions,  its  false  reasoning,  assertions, 
and  ingenious  statements,  are  so  interwoven  with  the  demon- 
stration of  a  few  sound  principles,  not  generally  admitted  by 
the  free  silver  people,  that  it  is  calculated  to  mislead  many 
readers. 

The  book  has  no  merit,  because  it  makes  no  candid  state- 
ment of  truth.  It  represents  fully  and  completely  the  views 
and  interests  of  an  element  in  the  Western  mining  states  and 
the  real  purposes  of  nobody  else.  Its  author  barely  attempts 
to  conceal  his  predilection  for  silver  monometallism,  and  the 
desire  to  bring  about  that  calamity  would  seem  to  be  clear 
throughout  the  book.  Such  literature  is  only  suited  to  the 
purposes  of  the  silver  mining  camps,  in    whose  interest  it 


^il 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 


75 


pleads,  and  it  can  influence  people  in  other  sections  only 
where  it  deceives,  and  its  apparently  thinly  veiled  purpose  is 
misunderstood. 

The  free  silver  people,  generally,  are  as  honest  and  good 
citizens  as  any  of  us,  and,  outside  the  mining  districts,  are  as 
sincere  in  their  views  ;  but  they  would,  without  due  consid- 
eration, commit  the  country  to  a  wrongful  policy  they  would 
not  approve,  if  applied  to  individuals — a  policy  that  would 
react  and  do  them  and  the  country  infinite  mischief. 

The  real  sentiment  of  Southern  and  Northern  "friends'^ 
of  silver  is  for  bimetallism,  and  not  for  silver  monometallism, 
as  taught  in  this  work.  Their  only  error  is  in  the  means 
they  would  use  to  maintain,  or  continue  it.  Put  them  right 
on  that,  and  the  difference  between  them  and  the  sound 
money  men  would  be  small. 


THE  RISE  IN  COAL  OIL  AND  BEEF. 

The  following  is  a  quotation  from  the  New  York  Times  of 
April  13th : 

*'  Oil  was  selling  around  fifty- three  cents  a  barrel  about  two 
years  ago,  and  the  supply  was  so  much  greater  than  the  de- 
mand that  production  fell  off  on  account  of  the  low  prices. 
Things  have  changed  wonderfully  since  then  and  oil  has  been 
gradually  creeping  up  in  price.  The  dollar  mark  was  reached 
at  the  opening  of  the  present  year.  Oil  sold  yesterday  at 
$1.80  per  barrel.  The  decrease  of  the  stocks  and  the  con- 
tinued drain  of  production  had  begun  to  excite  comments, 
and  the  world  awakened  to  the  situation.  It  was  seen  that 
an  enormous  demand  had  been  created  for  Pennsylvania  oil, 
which  demand  had  exhausted  the  supply,  outgrown  the  abil- 
ity of  the  country  to  satisfy,  and  on  the  heels  of  a  failing 
production." 

The  Nezv  York  Herald,  on  the  same  date,  commented  on 
the  advance  in  price  of  beef  as  follows : 

"  The  Herald's  special  dispatch  from  St.  Louis  last  night 
says  :  '  Beef  is  now  higher  than  it  has  been  in  the  recollec- 
tion of  dealers  since  war  times.  It  is  said  by  the  butchers 
that  the  rise  in  beef,  as  well  as  in  mutton,  will  continue  until 


76  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

June  1st.'     Our  Chicago  dispatch  this  morning  gives  som' 
interesting  data  respecting  the  present  supply  of  cattle,  and 
states  that  'during  the  first  four  months  of  1894  the  prices  at 
the  yards  ranged  from  61^^  to  7  cents ;   now  they  range  from 
9  to  10  cents.'  " 

It  may  be  seen  that  within  two  years  coal  oil  has  advanced 
350  per  cent,  and  beef  cattle  have  within  a  few  months  ad- 
vanced nearly  100  per  cent.     These  are  both  great  stapL 
productions  of  our  country. 

"Coin's  Financial  School"  contains  an  ingenious  but  silly 
table,  with  three  rows  of  figures,  showing  that  the  staple 
products  of  cotton  and  wheat  steadily  declined  in  about  the 
same  proportion  as  silver.  The  writer  elsewhere  clearly 
points  out  the  causes  of  the  decline  in  those  two  staples,  and 
that  the  decline  must  have  come  whether  silver  had  been  40 
cents  or  $2.00  an  ounce. 

It  may  be  here  asked  why  beef  and  coal  oil  have  gone  to 
such  high  prices  with  silver  fluctuating  around  60  cents  per 
ounce?  In  December,  1878,  when  silver  was  $1.10  per  ounce, 
the  farmers  of  Tennessee  got  only  4  to  4^  cents  per  pound 
gross  for  good  beef.  The  question  here  asked  ought  to  make 
the  little  "financier,"  "Coin,"  squirm.  And  such  facts  ought 
to  convince  everybody  of  the  humbuggery  of  that  misleading 
book.  1 

Beef  went  up  because  the  supply  was  short;  coal  oil  went 
up  in  greater  proportion  because  the  supply  not  only  de- 
creased, but  the  demand  increased.  The  price  of  silver  had 
no  more  to  do  with  the  rise  of  either,  nor  the  decline  of  whea 
and  cotton,  than  the  man  in  the  moon. 

Supply  and  demand  control  the  prices  of  all  commodities 
Special  conditions  exert  an  influence,  but  necessarily  to  a 
limited  extent. 


I 


li 


« COIN'S"  UNIT  OF  VALUE. 

A  good  deal  has  been  said  about  Coin's  "unit' 
3711^  grains  of  pure  silver.'    The  free  silver  people  have 
made  a  great  talk  about  it,  and  some  persons  on  the 
side  of   the  controversy  have  seriously  attempted  to 


I 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  77 

that  there  was  really  never  any  such   silver  unit  as  Coin 
speaks  of. 
-  All  of  this  is  nonsense. 

"Coin's"  unit  is  clap-trap.  It  is  one  of  the  farces  of  the 
"school." 

Copper  was  at  one  timfe  a  "unit."  Coon  skins  were  of  the 
units  in  the  days  of  barter. 

What  have  the  copper  unit,  the  coon  skin  unit,  or  the  silver 
unit,  each  well  enough  in  its  day,  to  do  with  the  unit  of  the 
present  time? 

Copper  ceased  to  be  a  unit  because  the  metal  became  so 
abundant  that  it  ceased  to  be  of  value  as  a  money  metal, 
coon  skins  ceased  to  be  a  unit  because  a  better  medium  of 
exchange  was  found,  and  silver  lost  its  place  as  a  unit  because 
it  dropped  below  the  modern  standard  of  value. 

Gold  is  now  the  monetary  standard,  or  unit.  Who  knows 
what  this  unit  may  be  five  hundred  or  five  thousand  years 
hence? 

Can  anybody  show  what  bearing  the  unit  of  thirty  centu- 
ries— or  of  one  century — ago  has  upon  the  question  of  a  unit 
in  the  year  1895? 


"COIN'S"  "UNLIMITED  DEMAND." 

One  of  the  most  absurd  of  the  many  absurd  statements  in 
the  "Financial  School"  is  on  page  27,  where  the  assertion  is 
made  that  "when  the  mints  of  the  world  are  thrown  open, 
and  the  governments  say,  we  will  take  all  the  silver  and  gold 
that  comes,  an  unlimited  demand  is  established." 

The  ability  and  capacity  of  governments  are  limited  by 
the  wants,  needs  and  resources  of  the  people  they  represent. 
If  the  people  cannot,  or  will  not  use  unlimited  quantities  of 
a  certain  kind  of  money,  what  use  can  the  governments 
make  of  it? 

And,  again :  are  not  the  markets  of  the  whole  world 
"open"  to  wheat,  corn,  cotton, — to  all  products  of  the  soil, 
of  the  mill  and  the  mine  ? 

And  do  these  wide  and  "open"  markets  give  an  "unlimit- 
ed" demand  for  products  generally,  or  do  they  give  fixed, 
permanent  values  ? 


73 


DOLIvARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 


It  is  well  known  that  they  do  neither. 

Then  is  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  so  called  ^'un- 
limited demand"  from  precisely  the  same  sources  could  per- 
manently raise  and  fix  the  price  of  silver  in  the  face  of  large 
overproduction  ? 

In  considering  this  matter,  peoplfe  lose  sight  of,  or  ignore 
the  fact  that  the  "demand"  for  silver  is  really  and  definitely 
limited. 

If  governments  buy  the  metal  in  excess  of  the  actual 
wants  of  the  people,  it  becomes  a  useless  accumulation,  just 
as  a  surplus  of  wheat,  corn,  pork  or  iron  become  a  useless 
accumulation  in  the  hands  of  producers  or  speculators. 

And  this  idle  accumulation  pulls  down  the  price. 

There  are  a  few  commodities  for  which  the  demand  may 
be  said  to  be  unlimited,  because  the  demand  always  exceeds 
the    supply.     The    prices   of    such    commodities    are    fairly 
steady,  because  the  use  of  them  is  steady,  and  there  is  never  «a 
a  surplus.  f  | 

The  demand  for  gold  is  unlimited  because  so  far  there  has 
been  no  indication  of  an  over-supply.     There  has  been.no 
sag  in  its  price,  no  glut  in  the  market,  no  disposition  in  any^MI 
quarter  to  buy  all  that  is  offered.     Its  uses  are  in  a  sense  un-^' 
limited  because  more  could  be  used  than  has  yet  been  pro- 
duced. J|| 

No  effort  has  ever  been  made  to  ^'demonetize"  gold,  be-m 
cause  its  use  as  money  has  never  injured  the  credit  of  any 
country.     A  nation  that  should  attempt  its  demonetization^ 
would  become  the  laughing  stock  of  everybody. 

Silver,  on  the  contrary,  being  largely  overproduced,  is  lim- 
ited in  its  uses,  and  consequently  cannot  be  in  "unlimited 
demand." 


COIN'S  FATAL  ADMISSION. 


On  page  lo  of  the  "Financial  School"  the  fatal  admission 
is  made  that  gold  and  silver  cannot  both  circulate  when  the, 
ratio  of  value  is  unequal.     Coin  here  states  that  in  1853  it| 
became  necessary  to  change  the  weight  of  silver  coin  to  keep! 
silver  from  going  out  of  the  country. 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  79 

After  this  admission  there  is  no  foundation  for  any  argu- 
ment made  in  the  book.  Beyond  page  10  no  thinking  man 
need  go  to  be  convinced  of  the  absurdity  of  the  "  school  "  in 
toto. 

If  a  difference  of  3^  per  cent,  in  the  true  ratio  between 
gold  and  silver  was  sufficient  to  drive  the  more  valuable 
metal  out  of  the  country,  how  can  any  man  believe  that  both 
could  remain  in  circulation  and  in  the  country  under  free 
coinage  with  a  difference  in  the  ratio  of  35  to  50  per  cent? 

At  the  time  referred  to  silver  was  the  most  valuable  metal. 
That  is,  if  the  silver  dollar  and  the  gold  dollar  had  each  been 
put  upon  the  scales  and  weighed,  the  silver  dollar  would 
have  sold  for  the  most  money. 

The  intrinsic  value  has  since  been  reversed,  and  the  gold 
dollar  is  now  worth  much  the  most.  It  is  worth  almost  two 
silver  dollars. 

The  silver  dollar  buys  as  much  as  the  gold  dollar,  because 
the  laws  or  policy  of  our  government  makes  it  exchangeable 
for  a  gold  dollar.  But  if  that  policy  were  abandoned,  and 
the  coinage  of  gold  and  silver  were  made  free,  is  it  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  the  silver  dollar,  worth  50  or  60  cents, 
as  the  case  might  be,  and  the  gold  dollar  worth  100  cents, 
would  circulate  side  by  side  ? 

How  can  this  question  be  seriously  asked  without  a  re- 
flection upon  the  intelligence  of  the  man  to  whom  it  is  put  ? 

The  gold  would  disappear  in  a  twinkling.^ 

Within  an  hour  after  the  passage  of  a  free  coinage  bill  at 
Washington,  practically  every  gold  dollar  in  the  United  States 
would  go  out  of  circulation.  Within  an  hour  the  per  capita 
money  circulation  would  be  reduced  from  $25  to  $16. 

There  would  be  no  waiting  to  see  whether  this  silverite 
stroke  of  finance  would  nearly  double  the  price  of  silver,  as 
the  silver  theorists  claim  that  it  would,  but  with  the  flash  of 
electricity  $626,000,000  of  the  best  American  money  would 
disappear,  to  be  seen  no  more  only  as  it  might  be  melted 
into  bars  and  consigned  to  the  coffers  of  more  sensible 
peoples.  And  the  same  winged  messages  that  bore  the  news 
of  this  incredible  blunder  would  seal  the  financial  doom  of 
millions  of  men  who  owe  money. 

The  day  of  the  Shylock  would  then  indeed  be  at  hand. 

Those  who  now  demand  the  pound  of  flesh,  might  with 
serene  confidence  demand  the  whole  carcass. 


8o  DOLI.ARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 

This  is  the  calamity  that  the  self-condemned  doctrine 
"  Coin  "  would  precipitate. 


i 


THE  DANGER  OF  "COIN'S"  LOGIC. 

"  Coin's  Financial  School "  impresses  the  author  as  a  book 
calculated  to  breed  socialism,  which,  he  thinks,  ought  to 
condemn  it  in  the  estimation  of  every  law-abiding  man. 
Whether  so  intended  or  not,  its  reading  is  calculated  to  sug- 
gest violence. 

Its  adroit  and  powerful  appeals  to  class  prejudice  is  apt  to 
strike  a  too  responsive  chord  in  the  minds  of  a  vicious  and 
dangerous  element  which  Europe  has  dumped  upon  our 
shores ;  an  element  which  throngs  our  large  Northern  cities, 
knows  nothing  of  our  laws  and  institutions,  and  composed  aM| 
best  of  vicious  agitators.  All  such  people  are  very  apt  to 
construe  Mr.  Harvey's  book  to  mean  that  the  "  crime,"  which 
it  is  claimed  the  moneyed  classes  have  committed  against 
the  people,  must  be  avenged.  These  ignorant  and  vicious 
people  are  very  likely  to  conclude  that  the  conspiracy  of  th 
rich  must  be  met  by  a  conspiracy  of  the  poor,  and  they  know 
no  weapons  but  the  bomb  and  the  torch.  The  power  of  the 
ballot,  and  its  peaceful  revolutions,  have  no  place  in  their 
understanding  when  they  have  wrongs  real  or  imaginary  to 
right.  It  is  very  unfortunate  that  any  true  American  should 
deem  it  necessary  or  wise  to  use  in  any  cause  arguments 
calculated  to  stir  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  ignorance ; 
and  it  is  still  more  unfortunate  that  many  good  and  right- 
minded  people  do  not  see  the  tendency  and  danger  of  such 
logic.  It  is  not  the  logic  of  a  man  who  has  a  good  cause,  nor 
the  kind  of  reasoning  that  good  citizens  will  approve,  if  they 
do  a  little  thinking  for  themselves. 

Those  who  believe  in  free  coinage  of  silver  desire  to  see 
a  peaceful  revolution  that  will  bring  about  that  result;  but 
they  shrink  from  blood  and  civil  strife.  They  do  not  de 
sire  to  see  class  arrayed  bitterly  against  class,  the  wage 
earner  against  the  employer,  the  tenant  against  the  landlord, 
the  borrower  against  the  lender,  the  poor  against  the  rich. 
They  believe  in  righting  wrongs  with  the  ballot  and  the  law;    ^ 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  8i 

but  they  want  no  violence.  During  the  great  strikes  of  last 
year  they  saw  and  felt  the  danger  of  class  prejudice  stirred 
by  leaders  professing  love  of  justice  and  humanity. 

In  pleading  his  cause,  Mr.  Harvey  makes  the  most  of  the 
unfortunate  condition  of  the  country  during  the  past  two  or 
three  years.  He  boldly  and  foolishly  asserts  that  all  the 
misfortunes  of  these  years  were  the  direct  results  of  a  law 
that  stopped  the  unlimited  coinage  of  silver.  He  also  fool- 
ishly charges  that  the  repeal  of  laws  authorizing  silver  coin- 
age was  a  crime  and  a  conspiracy. 

As  elsewhere  shown,  Americans  as  a  whole,  and  the  peo- 
ples of  other  nations,  the  lowly  and  the  great,  the  debtor  and 
the  creditor,  one  and  all,  are  responsible  for  the  so-called 
*' crime,"  the  "demonetization"  of  silver.  They  prefer  to 
use  other  money,  gold  and  paper.  If  the  people  of  the 
United  States  would  take  silver  in  quantities  from  the  banks, 
and  from  one  another,  and  draw  out  of  the  Treasury  the 
immense  idle  hoard  that  lies  there  useless  from  year  to  year; 
and  if  the  people  of  France  and  Germany,  and  other  nations 
of  Europe,  would  pursue  a  similar  policy — then  there  would 
be  no  need  to  restrict  the  coinage  of  the  metal,  and  the 
demand  would  immediately  raise  its  value. 

But  if  the  people  of  the  United  States  (and  the  same  con- 
dition applies  elsewhere)  refuse  to  use  any  more  than  about 
one-tenth  (excepting  silver  change)  of  the  country's  stock, 
and  compel  the  government  to  carry  the  remainder,  who  is 
to  blame  for  its  decline  in  value,  and  for  the  government's 
inability  to  maintain  its  coinage? 

Is  it  the  creditor,  the  property  owner,  the  capitalist,  the 
banker,  the  "gold  bugs,"  or  is  it  THE  PEOPLE  who  are 
responsible  ? 

Mr.  Harvey,  in  his  book,  says  it  is  the  rich;  but  is  a  mere 
assertion  stronger  than  the  facts? 

Was  this  great  "  crime "  committed  by  the  few,  or  by 
THE  MANY? 

Did  the  "gold  bugs"  get  together  and  "conspire"  to  carry 
only  a  little  silver  change  in  their  pockets,  or  did  THE 
PEOPLE,  without  any  "conspiracy"  at  all,  and  with  no 
thought  of  a  "crime,"  simply  find  silver  inconvenient,  and 
decline  to  burden  their  pockets  and  persons  with  an  over- 
supply  of  the  stufF? 

The  facts  speak  for  themselves. 


82  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

They  are  obscured  in  Mr.  Harvey's  book.  That  is  to  say, 
all  the  relevant  facts  are  obscured.  He  gets  together  a  great 
many  statistical  facts  regarding  the  precious  metals,  some  of 
them  interesting  enough,  but  without  any  true  bearing,  as 
applied  by  him,  upon  the  question  at  issue;  and  he  then 
marshals  more  arguments  calculated  to  rouse  class  prejudice 
than  is  contained  in  any  other  book  the  writer  has  ever  had 
the  misfortune  to  read. 

If  Mr.  Harvey  is,  as  he  claims,  and  which  I  do  not  dispute, 
concerned  for  the  welfare  of  his  countrymen,  he  is  a  blind 
guide.  He  is  playing  with  fire.  1  beg  all  good  citizens 
whose  opinions  have  been  influenced  by  him,  to  read  his 
book  again.  Read  carefully  pages  103,  and  130  to  135  in- 
clusive, and  other  pages  as  well.  Examine  attentively  tb 
suggestive  cuts  and  cartoons. 

I  believe  it  may  be  said  that  ''Coin's  Financial  School" 
makes  no  calm  appeal  to  the  judgment,  and  little,  if  any,  tq^ 
principle,  as  a  guide  for  the  conduct  of  men. 

The  creditor  is  held  up  as  an  ugly  Colossus,  consuming  the 
world,  and  the  debtor  is  portrayed  in  all  the  misery  of  evi 
oppression. 

There  are  bad  creditors  and  bad  debtors ;  but  be  it  said  t 
the  honor  of  mankind  that  the  majority  of  both  are  right 
minded,  and  in  this  circumstance  lies  the  encouragement  that 
Mr.  Harvey's  book,  and  much  similar  free  silver  literature^ 
may  exert  but  a  passing  influence. 


11 


li 


THE  "SILVER  BUG." 

The  "silver  bug"  is  very  common  out  West.  Many 
them  have  emigrated  East  and  live  in  great  style,  as  they  can 
well  afford  to  do,  in  New  York  an(i  other  big  cities.  Unlike 
the  ''gold  bugs"  they  are  a  species  peculiar  to  America,  and 
unknown  elsewhere.  Their  stock  in  trade  has  always  been 
silver,  and  their  methods  of  business  intimidation  and  force, 
and  although  Uncle  Sam  is  generally  supposed  to  be  a  stiff- 
necked  old  fellow,  they  bullied  him  unmercifully ;  bullied  him 
into  buying  the  declining  product  of  their  Western  mines,  on 
which  he  has  pocketed  an  average  loss  of  40  per  cent.  They 
say — the  admirers  of  the  silver  bugs  say — that  gold  bug 
cornered  the  old  fellow  a  short  time  ago  and  made  $16 


5,ooca| 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  83 

000  in  a  bond  deal.  This  is  doubted,  the  conditions  of  the 
deal  considered;  but  we  have  the  cold  figures  on  the  ''silver 
bugs."  Uncle  Sam  has  lost  more  than  $200,000,000  on  the 
silver  which  they  forced  him  to  buy  of  them.  The  old  fellow 
has  kept  a  careful  debt  and  credit  account  of  his  transactions 
with  them  and  the  proof  is  positive.  Any  one  who  would 
care  to  see  the  figures  may  find  them  on  page  sixteen  of  the 
1894  report,  Bureau  of  the  Mint.  The  average  price  of  silver 
during  the  past  two  years  need  only  be  added  to  complete 
the  estimate.     Here  are  the  figures: 

Cost  of  silver  bought $508,933,975 

Market  value,  60c  per  oz 305,360,385 

Net  loss  to  the  government $203,573,590 

This  sum  has  gone  into  the  pockets  of  the  silver  mine 
owners  of  the  West ;  and  the  North  and  South  and  other 
non-silver  producing  sections  pay  nearly  all  the  taxes  to 
make  the  loss  good.  It  is  nothing  less  than  robbery  under 
the  thin  guise  of  laws,  saddled  on  the  country  by  these  peo- 
ple under  threats  and  intimidation. 

Nothwithstanding  these  incredible,  illgotten  gains,  the 
"silver  bug,''  furious  with  greed,  now  has  Uncle  Sam  by  the 
throat,  demanding  unlimited  spoils. 


OUT  OF  THE  FRYING  PAN  INTO  THE  FIRE. 

There  are  a  number  of  men  within  the  writer's  knowl- 
edge, and  they  doubtless  represent  a  similar  class  throughout 
the  country,  who  have  till  lately  been  pronounced  believers 
in  a  stable  and  safe  currency.  But  they  have  become  dis- 
couraged. The  panic  of  1893,  ^^^  subsequent  and  persistent 
pressure  of  hard  times,  with  no  sanguine  outlook  for  the  fu- 
ture, has  disheartened  them,  as,  indeed,  it  well  might.  The 
free  silver  people  have  made  such  a  clamor,  and  made  such 
extravagant  promises,  to  be  redeemed  when  they  get  into 
power,  and  the  sotmd  money  men  have  said  so  little,  that  a 
good  many  people  have  concluded  that  they  might  as  well 
let  free  coinage  have  a  "chance."  In  other  words,  they  are 
cutting  loose  from  their  true  convictions,  because  they  can- 
not see  clearly  a  way  out,  and  are  getting  ready  to  jump  from 


84  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

the  frying  pan  into  the  fire.  They  have  made  up  thei: 
minds  to  help  on  the  very  thing  that  is  doing  all  the  mis 
chief. 

Since  the  Baring  failure  in  England,  general  but  not  per- 
manent causes  of  depression  have  existed  throughout  the 
world ;  but  the  free  silver  people,  practically  dictating  the 
financial  policy  of  the  United  States,  have  brought  on  all  the 
acute  phases  of  distress  at  home  and  done  much  harm  abroad. 
They  forced  the  passage  of  the  Sherman  law  in  1890,  which 
in  four  years  drove  $500,000,000  of  foreign  capital  out  of  the 
country ;  which  loss  would  have  bankrupted  us  but  for  the  for- 
tunate circumstances  of  fine  crops  and  large  exports.  In  the 
midst  of  these  withdrawals,  and  of  a  consequent  run  on  the 
Treasury,  with  gold  going  to  Europe  in  a  stream,  they  fought 
the  repeal  of  that  law  with  desperate  tenacity.  They  in- 
sisted that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  should  redeem  gov- 
ernment money  in  silver,  and  thus  bring  the  country  to  a 
silver  basis,  and  reduce  us  to  silver  monometallism,  with  its 
attendant  contraction  of  credits  and  currency. 

These  leaders  proved  themselves  incompetents  as  legisla' 
tors,  wrangling  over  trivial  matters,  making  long  free  silver 
speeches  while  the  tariff  issue  was  up,  and  still  further,  for 
months,  unsettling  the  business  of  the  country.  At  the  last 
session  of  Congress  they  blustered,  threatened  and  tried  to 
bully  the  administration.  They  did  and  said  more  foolish 
and  absurd  things,  exploited  more  theories,  did  more  squirm- 
ing and  dodging  on  important  public  matters,  and  exhibited 
greater  incompetency,  than  any  similar  body  of  men  in  his- 
tory. The  self-respecting,  practical  members  of  Congress 
were  helpless.  The  American  Congress  became  the  butt  of 
ridicule  the  world  over.  A  broad  smile  went  round  the 
planet  when  it  adjourned,  and  the  people  of  the  United 
States  threw  up  their  hats  and  "hollered." 

Do   not,  I  beg,  join  company   with    these  men.     Rather 
beseech   your   honest,   but   mistaken    neighbors,  who   trust 
them,  to  give  them  the  cold  shoulder  when  they  come  aroun 
at  election  time. 

Times  are  hard,  but  they  will  get  better  if  these  men  ca 
be  retired.     The  country,  the  South  particularly,  was  never 
in  such  a  condition  to  respond  promptly  to  favorable  influ- 
ences.    There  is  nothing  serious  now  the  matter  with  th 
business  outlook,  if  we  had  practical  law-makers,  or  even  th 
safe  prospect  of   no  more  silver  tinkering.     Theorists  hav 


DOI^IvARS,  OR  WHAT?  85 

done  us  enough  mischief.  They  are  really  the  men  you 
have  been  "giving  a  chance"  for  a  long  time.  They  have 
been  doing  nothing  but  harm.  Stick  to  your  principles. 
Keep  out  of  the  fire.  It  would  be  worse  than  the  frying  pan, 
and  though  more  acute,  the  agony  would  last  longer. 


INTERNATIONAL  BIMETALLISM. 

An  "international  agreement"  as  to  the  coinage  of  gold 
and  silver  means  that  the  great  civilized  nations  shall  jointly 
agree  upon  a  ratio  between  these  metals,  at  which  each  of 
the  contracting  countries  shall  coin  them  into  money. 

The  ratio  generally  suggested  in  the  United  States  is  on 
a  basis  of  16  of  silver  to  i  of  gold.  That  is,  16  times  as 
much  weight  in  the  silver  dollar  as  in  the  gold  dollar. 

It  means  also  that  gold  and  silver  when  so  coined  shall  be 
made  interchangeable,  on  the  agreed  ratio,  one  with  the 
other ;  which  is  to  say,  that  silver  dollars  must  be  kept  at  a 
parity  with  gold  dollars.  In  other  words,  if  the  true  market 
value  of  the  silver  dollar  should  be  less  than  that  of  the 
gold  dollar,  then  these  contracting  nations  must  keep,  as  the 
United  States  now  does,  a  stock  of  gold  sufiicient  to  exchange 
for  all  the  silver  dollars  that  may  be  offered  for  exchange. 

It  does  not  mean  that  the  -^'jligations  of  this  international 
co-partnership  shall  be  equr ',. 

It  does  not  mean  that  the  silver  product  of  the  world  be 
apportioned  and  each  nation  make  money  of  an  equal  part. 

Nor  does  it  mean  that  one  country  shall  be  bound  to 
accept  as  money,  or  to  redeem,  the  silver  coined  by  any 
other  country.  Bach  country  would  be  left  to  take  care  of, 
and  maintain  the  interchangeable  quality  of  its  own  coinage. 

These  might  be  considered  the  essential  features  of  an 
equitable  "  international  agreement." 

It  may  be  seen  that  the  credits  of  the  different  countries 
would  not  be  jointly  pledged.  It  would  be  foolhardy  to  so 
pledge  them. 

The  United  States,  for  instance,  as  now,  would  be  under 
the  necessity  of  maintaining  the  parity  of  her  own  gold  and 
silver.     She  would  have  to  keep  a  gold  reserye  as  now  XQ 


86  '  DOI^IvARS,  OR  WHAT  ? 


redeem  her  silver  dollars.  She  has  now  about  ten  times 
much  silver  money,  excepting  fractional  silver,  as  her  people 
will  use,  an  idle  accumulation  of  about  $500,000,000  in  the 
Treasury  vaults.  Her  credit  is  already  strained  by  buying 
gold  to  make  silver  dollars  good.  But  under  an  international 
agreement  she  would  be  obliged  to  add  an  "unlimited  "  num- 
ber of  silver  dollars  to  the  idle  Treasury  hoard.  She  would 
be  obliged  to  make  money  of  all  the  silver  that  might  be 
offered;  and  if  more  gold  were  needed  to  float  this  silver 
currency,  more  bonds  would,  if  possible,  have  to  be  sold  to 
obtain  the  amount  required. 

The  parties  to  this  international  contract  would  be  practic- 
ally England,  the  United  States,  France  and  Germany.  Some 
other  European  countries  would  sign  the  agreement,  but  their 
aid  would  hardly  be  worth  counting. 

Therefore  the  four  countries  named  would  be  obliged  to 
support  the  entire  silver  product  of  the  world. 

The  price  for  a  time  would  be  stimulated,  as  the  advocates 
of  an  international  agreement  believe  that  it  would.  It  might 
go  up  temporarily  to  $1.25  per  ounce,  or  even  reach  an  actual 
parity  with  gold  on  a  coinage  basis  of  16  to  i,  which,  how- 
ever, may  well  be  doubted. 

But  if  so,  the  production  would  go  up  in  proportion.  The 
output  in  1893  was  over  $200,000,000.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
it  would  reach  $250,000,000  per  annum  if  the  price  could  be 
maintained  three  or  four  years  at  $1.25  per  ounce.  This  is  a 
conservative  estimate.  The  silver  is  in  sight.  Modern 
scientific  and  mechanical  appliances  and  capital  are  at  hand 
ready  to  take  it  from  the  mine.  Our  own  mine  owners  of  the 
West  are  burning  with  impatience,  and  an  '*  unlimited  stiffly^'' 
would  be  forthcoming,     v 

Could  the  United  States,  France,  Germany  and  England 
furnish  the  "unlimited  demand f^ 

The  utmost  human  ingenuity  could  not  stimulate  its  ab- 
sorption by  India,  China,  and  other  slow-going  semi-civilized 
countries,  which  have  heretofore  been  the  precarious  customers 
for  the  surplus  when  the  product  reached  no  more  than  $160,- 
000,000  to  $165,000,000  per  annum. 

France,  like  America,  has  more  silver  than  her  people  can, 
or  will  use.  England  and  Germany  have  all  that  can  be 
handled  with  convenience. 

Does  anybody  believe,  in  view  of  these  facts,  that  the  out- 
look for  free  coinage  anywhere  is  promising? 


a^    H 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  87 

There  will  be  no  international  agreement.  The  four  great 
countries  mainly  concerned  cannot  bull  the  silver  market  so 
as  to  permanently  maintain  its  parity  with  gold.  The  attempt 
would  swamp  them  all.  The  United  States  would  break 
down  at  the  outset,  and  France  would  soon  follow. 

All  of  these  countries,  excepting  possibly  the  United  States, 
are  too  wise  to  stake  their  credit  and  hazard  the  wellfare  of 
their  people  on  the  chance  of  the  silver  mining  industry. 

Many  of  our  own  law-makers  know  that  the  whole  thing 
is  a  delusion.  They  have  known  that  the  appointment  of 
commissioners  to  "international  conferences"  was  a  ridiculous 
farce. 

The  agitation  of  even  the  "international"  feature  of  the 
silver  question  is  a  disturbing  factor  in  our  financial  policy, 
and  it  is  time  those  who  understand  this  matter  speak  out. 
And  there  are  plenty  of  men  who  understand  it  fully. 

Once  for  all,  the  whole  silver  question  should  be  settled, 
and  relegated  to  the  rear,  where  it  belongs.  I^et  us  get  rid 
of  the  whole  brood  of  fallacies  and  delusions  concerning  the 
issue,  and  turn  our  attention  to  practical  financial  needs. 


"FRIENDS"  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

The  politician,  who  gets  a  living  out  of  politics,  and  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  whose  business  it  is  to  influence  votes, 
invariably  poses  as  the  "  friend  "  of  the  people.  Most  of  the 
people  are  poor  and  hard  run ;  it  is  human  nature  for  them 
to  feel  that  something  or  somebody  is  to  blame — sometimes 
one  or  the  other  is — and  the  designing  politician  shrewdly 
turns  this  condition  to  his  own  account.  He  abuses  without 
stint  or  distinction  the  lender  whom  these  people  owe ;  he 
rails  at  the  property  owner,  whose  lands  they  till,  and  whose 
houses  they  occupy;  he  slurs  the  seller  from  whom  they 
obtain  supplies  ;  he  denounces  the  employer  who  gives  them 
work ;  he  throws  mud  savagely  at  every  class,  and  at  every 
individual  toward  whom  he  can  hope  to  direct  the  prejudice 
of  unfortunate  voters.  He  is  a  hypocrite.  He  is  a  wolf  in 
sheep's  clothing.  He  would,  if  it  served  his  interests,  blast 
the  people  he  professes  to  serve.     He  goes  to  the  legislature 


88  DOIvIyARS,  OR  WHAT? 

or  to  Congress  and  accepts  favors  and  bribes  from  unholy 
corporations,  and  unscrupulous  schemers  whom  he  so  savage- 
ly denounced  when  talking  to  the  people.  For  a  railroad  or 
a  street  car  pass,  or  for  a  few  shares  of  stock  in  a  corporation, 
or  in  consideration  of  a  "tip,"  as  to  the  course  of  a  stock  on 
the  stock  exchange,  to  be  manipulated  by  his  bribers,  he 
barters  the  people's  rights,  and  lays  upon  them  heavy  bur- 
dens. To  placate  one  class  of  voters  he  hurls  epithets  at 
another,  to  favor  one  class  he  levies  tribute  on  and  oppresses 
others,  feeling  sure  always  that  the  wronged  ones  are  in  the 
minority.  To  advance  himself  he  betrays  all,  concealing  as 
far  as  possible  his  treachery  under  the  cloak  of  innocence. 

It  just  now  suits  the  purpose  of  most  of  these  "  friends  " 
of  the  people  to  pose  on  what  they  believe  to  be  the  popular 
side  of  the  silver  question  in  their  respective  districts  or 
states.  The  question  itself  begets  prejudices,  and  they  are 
making  the  most  of  those  that  are  natural,  and  are  busily 
arousing  others  that  are  unnatural.  They  are  trying  to  array 
class  against  class,  interest  against  interest,  the  poor  against 
the  rich  and  well-to-do,  sowing  seeds  of  dissatisfaction,  social- 
ism and  communism.  They  are  trying  to  make  it  appear 
that  the  interests  of  different  business  classes  are  widely  dif- 
ferent, and  have  nothing  in  common,  and  that  stagnation, 
contraction  and  loss  will  cheer  and  prosper  one  class,  while 
it  impoverishes  and  depresses  all  others.  One  must  keep  a 
pretty  clear  head,  or  he  will  conclude  that  the  world  is  really 
out  of  joint  when  the  preaching  of  such  doctrine  by  such 
well  known  kind  of  preachers  finds  eager  and  attentive  lis- 
teners. Right  thinking  and  prudent  men  should  denounce 
instead  of  embracing  such  dangerous  heresies.  Unjust  and 
iniquitous  combinations  of  capital  do  undoubtedly  exist; 
combinations  largely  promoted  and  encouraged  in  secret  by 
the  bribe-taking  *'  friends"  of  the  people  ;  and  in  the  nature 
of  things  they  will  continue  to  exist  till  human  nature 
changes,  or  the  millennium  comes.  But  they  are  confined 
to  no  business  class  or  condition  of  men.  And  even  these 
unrighteous  combinations  are  vitally  interested  in  the  pros- 
perity of  the  people.  It  is  a  serious  mistake  to  assume  that 
anybody  or  any  class  can  prosper  on  the  general  misfortunes 
of  the  country.  It  is  a  mistake  fully  as  great  to  permit  the 
judgment  to  be  influenced  by  any  ofiice-seeker  whose  in- 
tegrity and  manhood  are  not  known  to  be  grounded  on  a  rock. 


DOI.LARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  89 

How  many  such  did  you  ever  know?     How  many  do  you 
know  to-day  ?     The  "  friends"  of  the  people  are  humbugs. 


SOUND  MONEY  CLUBS. 

The  last  few  years  of  very  hard  times,  to  use  a  mild  ex- 
pression, have  put  voters  to  thinking.  The  chains  that 
bound  them  to  party  organizations,  regardless  of  the  issue 
at  stake,  have  been  slipping  off.  Sensible  men  have  been 
thoroughly  exasperated  and  disgusted  with  the  dodging  and 
shillyshallying  of  our  public  men,  regardless  of  whether  they 
belonged  to  this  party  or  that.  And  it  is  most  fortunate  that 
this  independence  exists  at  this  particular  time.  Few  public 
men  now  in  sight  have  expressed  pronounced  views  on  the 
question  of  free  coinage  of  silver.  Nearly  all  are  cringing  and 
dodging,  and  those  most  prominent  are  cringing  and  dodging 
most.  No  reference,  of  course,  is  made  to  the  representa- 
tives from  the  mining  camps  and  other  pronounced  free  sil- 
ver theorists  or  demagogues.  But  the  voters  of  the  country 
are  in  no  mood  for  double  dealing,  and  they  are  going  to 
force  square  issues  and  open  expression.  There  will  be  less 
regard  for  party  lines  in  the  next  campaign  than  in  any  other 
in  the  history  of  the  country.  With  the  sound  money  ele- 
ment the  currency  question  will  be  paramount.  And  the 
same  may  be  said  of  the  pronounced  free  silver  element. 

In  view  of  these  conditions,  and  the  vital  importance  of 
the  issue,  sound  money  clubs  should  be  formed  throughout 
the  country  and  a  vigorous  sound  money  campaign  at  once 
begun.  Good  literature  on  the  issues  involved  should  be 
systematically  and  widely  distributed.  Capable  and  forcible 
speakers  should  be  engaged ;  and  the  question  publicly  dis- 
cussed in  all  cities  and  villages  where  there  is  hope  that  such 
discussion  can  avail.  But  there  should  be  no  waste  of  effort. 
The  territory  should  be  carefully  and  judiciously  laid  out  by 
states,  and  by  districts  in  other  states.  Some  sections  are  so 
hopelessly  inflationist  that  it  would  be  useless  to  attempt  to 
convert  them  in  the  comparatively  short  time  from  now  to 
the  date  of  the  next  election.  These,  for  the  present,  should 
be  left  to  the  silverites  and  populists. 


90  DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT? 

Sound  money  and  a  safe,  permanent  basis  of  credits  will 
prevail.  There  is  too  much  intelligence  in  the  country  to 
permit  a  further  drop  down  the  silver  slide.  But  it  needs  to 
be  further  aroused  and  enlightened.  The  practical  facts,  finan- 
cial tests  and  arguments  are  all  on  the  side  of  honest  money. 
The  enemy  can  deal  only  in  theories,  and  "his  only  effective 
weapon  is  prejudice.  Clearly  informed,  the  people  can  be 
relied  on  to  reach  right  conclusions.  But  there  is  serious  work 
to  do  if  decisive  victory  is  to  be  won. 


A  WORD  TO  THE  EAST. 

The  tremendous  though  mistaken  pressure  in  many  sec- 
tions for  free  coinage  of  silver  has,  at  bottom,  good  cause  and 
grave  significance.  It  is  not  a  mere  sentiment,  which  is 
going  to  down.  It  has  a  substantial  basis.  The  South,  in 
particular,  has  entered  an  era  of  wonderful  growth  and  de- 
velopment. Money  is  lacking  in  many  localities  to  move 
new  enterprises  and  to  handle  its  immense  increase  in  busi- 
ness. While  confidence  is  a  vastly  more  important  factor 
just  now,  both  are  needed. 

The  Bast  has  not  a  proper  understanding  of,  nor  due  sym- 
pathy with,  this  real  want  for  ''more  money."  There  is,  the 
writer  believes,  enough  money  in  the  country  as  a  whole, 
and  with  the  idle  millions  of  unloanable  funds  in  the  East- 
ern States,  the  people  there  do  not  see  what  anybody  wants 
with  "  more  money."  They  are  also  disgusted  with  the 
demand  in  many  quarters  for  inflation,  pure  and  simple. 
They  do  not  recognize  the  underlying  cause  for  free  silver. 
They  see  only  its  folly  and  danger,  and  believe  the  masses 
who  advocate  it  to  be  repudiationists,  which,  in  principle, 
they  are  not.  It  is  only  a  certain  class  of  office  seekers  and 
demagogues  who  are,  many  of  them,  without  principle  and 
do  not  care  what  happens,  if  only  they  get  the  offices.  The 
masses  are  honest  and  earnest  in  seeking  needed  relief  in 
the  wrong  directions.  The  East,  being  now  the  sound  money 
section  of  the  country,  would  act  wisely  if  it  would  under- 
take to  give  proper  direction  to  the  general  demand  for 
"  more  money."     To  retire  the  greenbacks  (which  should  be 


DOLLARS,  OR  WHAT?  91 

done)  and  permit  national  banks  to  issue  notes  only  to  the 
par  value  of  the  bonds,  without  a  liberal  emergency  circula- 
tion, which  appears  to  be  the  idea  of  many  Eastern  bankers, 
would  not  cure  the  trouble.  That  would  be  all  right,  doubt- 
less, for  some  sections,  but  not  for  others.  It  is  more  than 
probable  that  it  would  contract  the  present  volume  of  cur- 
rency, which  is  not  desirable,  and  which  would  instantly 
raise  an  almost  universal  outcry,  such  as  would  certainly 
result  in  wild  financial  legislation.  It  would  embitter  and 
intensify  beyond  measure  the  feeling  against  the  moneyed 
interests.  Men  should  not  view  these  questions  from  local 
points  of  view.  They  require  broad  and  comprehensive 
treatment. 

The  Bast  justly  opposes  free  coinage  as  an  unmitigated 
evil,  beneficial  to  nodody  and  destructive  to  the  interests  of 
all;  but  unwisely  offers  no  comprehensive  substitute.  It 
gives  no  general  recognition  to  any  movement  likely  to  cure 
the  present  trouble  and  silence  free  silver  agitation  except 
from  the  mining  regions  of  the  West.  The  mine  owners 
will  never  cease  preaching  free  silver  so  long  as  there  is  a 
ton  of  silver  ore  in  sight. 

Sound  money  clubs  East,  and  all  persons  of  all  sections 
concerned  for  a  sound  currency,  should  endeavor  to  inform 
the  people  on  the  functions  of  banking  and  the  necessity  for 
an  expansive  bank  note  currency  if  we  are  to  have  safe 
financiering,  and  certainly  escape  the  calainily  of  a  silver 
basis.  One  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to  this,  the  only  rational 
solution  of  our  difficulties,  is  the  false  notion  that  the  govern- 
ment extends  special  ^'favors"  to  the  moneyed  classes  if 
bankers  are  given  a  profit  in  their  circulation.  This  erro- 
neous view  has  grown  up  only  since  the  government  unfortu- 
nately assumed  banking  functions ;  and  great  pains  should  be 
taken  to  remove  it.  It  ought  not  to  be  hard  to  show  that  it 
is  a  mistaken  notion,  and  to  demonstrate  that  there  can  be 
no  other  satisfactory  solution  of  our  financial  troubles.* 

*See  articles :  "  Privileges  "  of  National  Banks,  and  '•  Bank  Note  Circu- 
lation.*' 


92  DOIylyARS,  OR  WHAT? 


PRESENT  GENERAL  CONDITIONS. 

Barring  the  financial  situation  there  is  nothing  in  the  way 
of  a  strong  and  steady  advance  to  prosperity. 

From  1890  to  1893  there  was  much  liquidation  the  world 
over ;  and  since  then  it  has  been  in  America  unprecedented. 
There  has  been  no  enterprise  and  little  buying ;  business 
stagnation  and  industrial  paralysis  have  been  almost  com- 
plete. Never  have  so  many  people  been  so  long  in  enforced 
idleness,  and  never  have  retrenchment  and  economy  been 
greater  or  more  general.  Concerns  and  institutions  on  a  weak 
basis  have  gone  to  the  wall ;  men  seriously  embarrassed^ 
seeing  so  little  prospect  ahead,  have  surrendered. 

All  the  wrecks  are  pretty  well  cleared  away.  Those  on  a 
safe  footing,  fearful  of  what  a  day  might  bring  forth,  have 
bent  every  energy  to  the  reduction  of  liabilities.  Manu- 
facturing has  been  below  normal  consumption.  Stocks  in 
first  hands  have  been  materially  reduced,  and  in  second  and 
third  hands  the  reduction  has  been  very  great. 

In  the  mercantile  line,  retailers  and  jobbers  have  long 
bought  with  extreme  caution,  and  in  quantities  so  small  that 
supplies  have  barely  met  the  reduced  demand,  and  they  have 
worked  oflf  accumulations  of  undesirable  and,  ordinarily,  un- 
salable stock. 

The  reduction  of  supplies  in  the  hands  of  consumers,  how- 
ever, has  been  greater  than  elsewhere.  Losses  by  shrinkage, 
failure,  stagnation  and  idleness  have  been  so  discouraging 
and  so  universal  that  people  of  all  classes  and  conditions 
have  reduced  buying  to  the  lowest  possible  limit.  No  man 
has  been  able  to  see  when  his  condition  would  improve,  or 
to  feel  assured  [that  it  might  not  grow  worse,  and  all  have 
spent  money  grudgingly.  The  masses  have  bought  only  the 
bare  necessities  of  living. 

If  the  70,000,000  of  people  in  the  United  States  were  to 
begin  to  supply  one-half  their  normal  needs,  merchants 
would  be  run  off  their  feet  and  the  mills  would  run  day  and 
night. 

Building  of  all  kinds  has,  for  two  or  three  years,  been 
almost  suspended.  Carpenters,  masons,  plasterers,  painters, 
architects  and  contractors  have  been  either  idle  or  seeking  a 
subsistence  at  other  trades  or  callings.     If  the  people  were 


DOLI.ARS,  OR  WHAT  ?  93 

to  start  to  building  one-half  the  houses  they  want,  these  men 
could  return  to  the  old  work  busy  as  bees. 

No  railroad  in  the  country  has  its  normal  supply  of  equip- 
ment. It  would  be  safe  to  say  that  there  are  100,000  to 
150,000  broken-down  and  side-tracked  cars  in  the  country, 
and  no  need  for  half  as  many  more  new  ones.  Other  equip- 
ments, including  rails,  are  in  similar  condition.  Twenty-five 
to  thirty  thousand  miles  of  new  lines,  surveyed  or  projected, 
are  awaiting  construction.  '^ 

Money  by  the  hundreds  of  millions  lies  idle  in  the  money 
centers  of  the  country.  Its  owners  are  chafing  little  less 
than  the  idle  workingmen.  They  are  anxious  to  put  it  into 
the  channels  of  trade  and  industry.  The  general  situation 
never  had  a  stronger  back-bone. 

But  the  free  silver  nightmare  stands  iu  the  way. 

Men  will  not  put  out  dollars  this  year  with  the  probabil- 
ity that  they  may  be  returned  next  year  in  fractions  of 
dollars.  They  will  not  lend  or  invest  on  a  gold  basis  while 
there  is  a  prospect  of  payment  and  return  on  a  silver  basis. 

This  does  not  apply  only  to  the  large  owners  of  money, 
but  to  the  small  holders  as  well.  And  it  is  the  small  holders 
who  give  life  to  all  enterprise  and  industry. 

Nor  will  anybody  invest  in  the  face  of  a  growing  doctrine 
that  would,  if  it  should  prevail,  involve  the  country  in  general 
calamity.  This  is  indeed  the  greatest  deterrent  to  any 
movement  of  money:  Its  effect  is  much  greater  than  even  the 
well-defined  apprehension  of  returns  in  cheap  dollars. 

The  only  reason  that  there  has  been  anything  at  all  doing, 
and  the  only  thing  that  has  saved  the  country  from  complete 
financial  collapse,  is  the  faith  of  a  large  part  of  the  people 
that  there  is  too  much  hard,  common  sense  in  the  country  to 
permit  further  silver  legislation. 

There  is  a  well  defined  belief  that  the  twenty  years 
campaign  of  the  silver  barons  of  the  West  has  reached  its 
culmination.  And  this  belief  is  well  grounded,  if  by  proper 
currency  revision  their  allies  in  other  sections  are  won 
from  them. 

The  needs  of  the  people,  so  long  and  rigidly  curtailed,  are, 
to  some  extent,  stimulating  trade,  and  if  we  should  have  even 
a  little  prosperity  to  give  employment  and  encouragment,  the 
silver  doctrine  would  lose  its  hold  in  many  quarters. 

And  as  it  wanes,  and  as  sensible  financiering  prevails, 
prosperity  will  rise  and  spread  over  the  land. 


94  DOIyLARS,  OR  WHAT? 


WHICH  DO  YOU  PREFER? 

GOLD  STANDARD.  \ 
Gold $  626,000,000  Present  stand- 
Silver 625,ooo,ooo(  ard   of  the  Uni- 

Uncovered  Paper 475,000,000)  ted  States. 

^  '      i  Bureau  of  the 

Total  present  stock  of  money,  )   Mint    estimates, 

gold  value $1,726,000,000/    1894  Report. 

$25.00  PER  CAPITA. 

SILVER  STANDARD.  \ 

Silver $   625,000,000  \ 

Uncovered  Paper 475,000,000/       This  would  be 

'    ^      '  ,         -,  ,  ,  .  f    the  first  and  im- 

Total  stock  and  debt  paymg  \    mediate  result  of 

value  under  free  coinage $i,ioo,ooo,ooof    Free  Silver. 

Divided  by .2)$!, 100,000,000 \ 

Purchasing  Value $   550,000,000/ 

$16.00  PER  CAPITA,  FACE  VALUE. 

$  8.00  PER  CAPITA,  TRUE  VALUE. 

FLUCTUATING  DAILY. 


NOTE  TO  SECOND  EDITION. 

Since  the  greater  part  of  the  type  for  this  work  was  set  in  permanent 
form  the  writer  has  learned  that  his  references  to  a  bank  note  circulation 
have  been  construed,  in  some  quarters,  to  mean  that  he  favors  an  uncon- 
ditional repeal  of  the  State  bank  tax.  He  meant  to  convey  no  such  idea. 
He  is  opposed  to  anything  of  the  kind.  No  banking  system  not  under  the 
direct  control  of  the  government  can  be  safe  or  desirable. 

As  a  parting  word  to  some  of  the  critics  of  the  articles  referred  to,  the 
writer  desires  to  say,  that  the  man  who  is  unable  to  see  that  our  banking 
laws  need  revision,  does  not  look  beyond  the  horizon  of  his  own  environ- 
ments, and  that  of  the  money  centers. 

And  in  times  of  the  active  employment  of  money,  the  want  of  an  elastic 
currency  is  often  as  severely  felt  in  New  York  as  elsewhere.  Great  scarcity 
of  money  and  excessive  rates  of  interest  are  not  unusual  in  that  center. 
Such  conditions  frequently  exist  when  the  movement  of  currency  is  active ; 
and  in  consequence  the  business  world  is  nervous  and  anxious. 

On  more  than  one  occasion  within  the  past  eight  years  the  country  has 
been  on  the  verge  of  panic  from  a  stringency  of  money  in  New  York.  On 
one  or  two  occasions  the  administration  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  banks  by 
making  deposits  of  government  funds,  and  at  another  time  United  States 
bonds  were  bought  to  relieve  the  strain.  And  in  1887,  when  money  was 
going  South  and  West  in  large  volumes,  serious  apprehension  was  felt  in 
the  East.  The  writer  remembers  receiving  at  the  time  letters  from  New 
York  bankers  expressing  concern  as  to  the  drain  on  New  York  banks.  At 
such  times  the  rate  on  call  loans  in  New  York  has  ranged  from  15  to  50  per 
cent,  and  even  as  high  as  100  per  cent.  No  such  condition  would  be  possible 
if  our  currency  were  elastic.  The  panic  of  1893  would  doubtless  have  been 
averted  if  the  banks  had  been  permitted  to  issue  an  emergency  circulation. 

The  obstinate  opponents  of  a  sensible  and  material  revision  of  our  bank- 
ing laws  are  blind.  And  it  is  against  such  short-sightedness  and  obstinacy 
that  the  free  silver  and  inflation  element  is  blindly  and  furiously  striking. 
The  country  must  either  revise  its  banking  system  or  go,  sooner  or  later,  to 
a  silver  basis.  The  free  silver  element  in  the  South,  and  in  Ohio,  Illinois, 
Indiana  and  other  states,  must  be  detached  from  the  mine  owning  West. 

There  should  be  no  foolish,  unsafe  currency  legislation,  nothing  that 
would  authorize  bank  notes  less  safe  than  the  notes  of  the  national  bank ; 
but  this  circulation  can  be  made  less  rigid,  and  still  be  safer  than  any  bank 
note  currency  in  the  world,  and  also  safe  from  inflation. 

We  do  not  want  any  mixed  bank  note  system,  that  is  to  say,  there  should 
be  but  one  system,  and  but  one  kind  of  banks  allowed  to  issue  money.  We 
already  have  too  many  kinds  of  money.  There  should  be  but  one  kind  of 
paper  money  in  the  country,  and  that  should  be  issued  directly  by  banks 
under  one  general  system,  and  under  direct  control  of  the  government. 

In  authorizing  such  system,  provision  should  be  made  for  the  gradual 
retirement  of  every  dollar  of  paper  money  bearing  the  stamp  of  the  United 
States.  It  might  not  be  wise  to  do  all  this  at  once,  but  in  all  currency 
legislation  that  end  should  be  kept  in  view. 

Fortunately  the  blind  advocates  of  our  present  inflexible  currency  system 
are  in  a  great  minority,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  there  is  enough  wisdom 
among  the  sound  money  men  of  the  Bast,  and  elsewhere,  to  shape  public 
sentiment  in  favor  of  a  sensible  revision  of  the  currency  laws. 


(95) 


til 


PRESS  COMMENTS. 

"  Dollars,  or  What,  contains  the  soundest  and  most  candid  presentation 
of  the  financial  question  that  we  have  yet  seen,  and  it  is  sure  to  be  a  salu- 
tary antidote  to  the  poisonous  stuff  put  forth  in  '  Coin's  Financial  School,' 
and  similar  publications.  *  *  *  It  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
voter." — Rhodes'  Journal  of  Bankings  N.  Y. 

"  Dollars,  or  What,  not  only  answers  '  Coin,*  but  completely  annihilates 
the  very  basis  of  Coin's  argument." — Sioux  City  (Iowa)  Tribune. 

"It  meets  Harvey  effectually — in  a  direct,  simple  way,  which  anybody 
can  understand." — Hartford  {Qonn.)  Times. 

"Mr.  Mitchell  is  a  bimetallist  of  rare  financial  and  literary  ability. "-^U 
Bonforfs  Wine  and  Spirit  Circular,  N.  Y.  4| 

"  The  book  is  undoubtedly  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the 
currency  question." — The  (Chicago)  Israelite. 

"A  brief  and  practical  statement  of  the  effect  of  unlimited  coinage." — 
Atlanta  (Ga.)  Journal. 

"  Its  language  is  simple,  plain  and  temperate,  its  arguments  clear  and 
concise,  and  its  exposure  of  some  of  the  financial  fallacies  of  the  day  com 
plete." — Farm  and  Fireside,  Springfield,  Ohio. 

"A  strong  and  very  readable  argument  against  the  free  coinage  of  sil* 
ver." — Philadelphia  News. 

"  Dollars,  or  What,  takes  all  the  wind  out  of  Coin's  Financial  School. 
New  York  Mail  and  Express. 

"A  valuable  contribution  to  the  currency  controversy." — Rochester 
(N.  Y.)  Herald. 

The  Argus,  Portland,  Me.,  referring  to  extracts  from  Dollars,  or  What, 
says:  "  They  are  readable  ;  they  are  exact ;  they  are  as  full  of  meat  as  an 

"  Dollars,  or  What,  most  clearly  sets  forth  the  whole  system  of  finance." 
Chattanooga  Press. 

"Dollars,  or  What,  will  have  a  large  circulation." — Norfolk  Virginian. 

"  Mr.  Mitchell  is  an  interesting  writer,  and  though  his  views  are  entirely 
opposed  to  those  of  the  majority  of  the  people  of  the  South,  his  treatment 
of  the  question  bespeaks  his  ability." — Atlanta  Constitution. 

"A  forcible  exposure  of  the  errors  of  the  silverites." — The  Herald,  Utica, 
N.  Y. 

"  Mr.  W.  B.  Mitchell  *  *  has  taken  time  to  give  a  set  of  clear,  force- 
ful arguments  in  behalf  of  sound  money,  that  can  be  *  *  *  easily 
understood." — Daily  State  Gazette,  Trenton,  N.  J. 

"Written  in  an  easy,  attractive  style,  that  will  make  it  popular  with  the| 
people." — The  Financier,  N.  Y.  J 

"There  is  no  doubt  of  there  being  a  great  popular  demand  for  the  work.**^ 
Kansas  City  Mail. 

"The  best  work  yet  written  on  the  financial  question." — Paris  (Texas) 
Daily  News. 

"This  little  book  is  bound  to  be  of  great  service  to  the  cause  of  soundj 
money." — Financial  Index,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

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YB  18333 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAIvIFORNIA  IvIBRARY 


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